Dancing on the Edge

Let's explore the similarities and differences between the Grand Marais and Ely communities, as well as the wisdom of moving our bodies with M Baxley. M Baxley is the creative genius Bear Witness Media based out of Grand Marais. They also do media work for Paddle & Portage.

Show notes: 

Boundary Waters Connect sponsors the Wilderness Edge Podcast. 

The Story of Us is a short film about about the joys and challenges of relocating and building community on the edge of the Boundary Waters. M moved from Minneapolis to Grand Marais, and Lacey moved from Saint Paul to Ely. This film explores the convergence of their stories. It is a collaboration between Boundary Waters Connect and Bear Witness Media.  

Why We Live Here video series is the original project that introduced Lacey and M to each other. These 4-minute videos each tell the story of an individual or couple who relocated to a town on the edge of the BWCAW -- what compelled them to move and how things are going now that they've relocated. 

Bizhiki in Cook County: A Short Film that captures Bizhiki’s residency in Cook County, presented by the North Shore Music Association. Bizhiki is an acclaimed contemporary Ojibwe music and storytelling ensemble that brought their multidisciplinary performance to Cook County in November 2025. The film offers an inside look at the musical artistry, cultural teachings, and the meaningful connections Bizhiki formed with local students and community members.

Bear Witness Media on Instagram

Cook County YMCA

Paddle & Portage offers a unique perspective on the intersection of news, adventure, and storytelling from the Boundary Waters, as well as other paddling destinations across North America. Paddle & Portage offers online content as well as a podcast. 

Transcript

Lacey Squier 0:00

Hey listeners, it's Lacey. I want to make sure that you know that we're hosting Boundary Waters Connect and Potluck Kitchenware is hosting a hello neighbor let's dance regional gathering on Saturday, May 30th. And it's actually something that Em and I get to talking about in this conversation. But I wanted to again make sure that you know you're invited on Saturday, May 30th, to come to Ely, Minnesota, come in time for lunch, grab lunch on the town, do a little shopping, check out Kowishwee Falls, go to a museum, and then join us for a dinner at the Ely Folk School. This dinner will be free, and the people of Ely will prepare food for our regional guests from 6 to 8 p.m. And then we're moving out to the Huck for a Dance Party featuring DJ Angel. You can get all the details about what is the huck, where is the huck, and this event in general through the link in the show notes. We'd love to host our regional neighbors here in Ely. And you're gonna want to listen to the full episode to understand the heart of why we're doing this and how we're making it happen.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

And I think that's the most powerful part of it is like when we're children, we just move in a way that brings us joy. And it's not hard to get a kid to dance or to show love. It comes pretty naturally, but then we sort of learn all these other ways of having to be in the world. There's something about this place that uh empowers people to kind of sort of live to the fullest in the spectrum of life.

Lacey Squier 1:45

Welcome to Wilderness Edge, a podcast for people who are curious about the communities on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, brought to you by Boundary Waters Connect. Join me, Lacey, for juicy conversation with area residents and all who have a heart home up north. We offer dialogue about what gives northeastern Minnesota the edge, as well as some real talk about the sometimes sharp edges of living in remote and rural locations. In this episode, we'll explore the similarities and differences between Grand Marais and Ely, as well as the wisdom of moving our bodies with M. Baxley. M. Baxley is the creative genius behind Bear Witness Media based out of Grand Moray. They also do media work for paddle and portage. Hi, M.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Hello. Thanks for having me.

Lacey Squier 2:37

Thank you for having me, having us. Brett is in the house. Brett, our producer with Boreal Roots Media, and we are sitting in a very well-lit living room overlooking the big lake in the Grand Moray.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Yeah, well, this is Wilderness Edge, isn't it?

Lacey Squier 2:56

It is. We're on the edge. Like on the edge of Lake Superior, on the edge of the Gunflint Trail. What other edges are here?

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Well, I mean, on the edge of the country, really. Yeah. Uh you just drive a little further northeast and you're in Canada.

Lacey Squier 3:16

Oh, truly.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

A very uh real part of the reality on this side of the wilderness.

Lacey Squier 3:25

I wonder. Well, first of all, I mean, I'm just I'm in awe of the fact that we're together doing this.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Yeah.

Lacey Squier 3:31

You and I have known each other for a long time, it seems like, but also the blink of an eye. And it's just a pleasure to be able to podcast with you.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

This is a long time coming, and it's really fun to be on the um sorry, I'm gonna take my watch off so it's not notifying me of distractions.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Ah, please, yes. Um, hock it.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

There you go. Throw it to the other side of the room. That feels good.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Yeah, it does.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Uh, it's nice to be on on this side of the of the microphone. Yeah. And uh really glad to have Brett here to take care of all the fun technology pieces so we can just focus on having a conversation together.

Lacey Squier 4:14

Which is like really the heart of our relationship.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Conversation.

Lacey Squier 4:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

It is. Long, lengthy ones uh all times of day.

Lacey Squier 4:22

At all times of day, yes. But um, our listeners maybe haven't been properly introduced to you. So I wonder if you would say a little bit more about who you are and a little bit about your work. Like what what is the nature of you being on the other side of the microphone, you know, in due time, if you could get to that.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Absolutely. Um well, introductions are always a little challenging for me because it feels like simplifying something that is quite complex. However, um, I have lived in uh Grand Moray here for 11 years this May. Wow. Uh and it's it's April. So that's coming up on my 11th anniversary of being a resident here in Cook County in the Arrowhead region of Minnesota. And in general, I often say that my life feels like in some ways it started when I moved here. Wow. Uh in the way that this place uh elicits, I think, for many people a coming-of-age experience of re of real life and of self-discovery. So in some ways it's a before and after, but since I've lived here, um I've gotten to endeavor in so many things that have led to now um running my own business, bear witness media, in which I basically do a variety of types of storytelling that takes me all sorts of places near and far, uh, allows me to do one of the things that I enjoy more than anything, which is to meet new people and see new places and listen to people's stories. And uh I'd say that's like kind of at the heart of who I am, is I like people matter a lot to me, and place matters a lot to me. So um diving into those things, both personally as a human being and also professionally, and to share the stories of people in place uh is at the heart of how I how I like to be in the world.

Lacey Squier 6:27

I got to know that part of you. You know, our our friendship began because we were like paired up on a work project, like sort of blind date style. Like we did not know each other, and it was like your colleague knew my colleague, and those people connected and then suggested that we do this thing.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

And they didn't.

Lacey Squier 6:50

And that was a video series called Why We Live Here, where you know, I sort of had contact with Ely folks, you had contact with Cook County, uh, Grand Moray Hoveland folks, and we wanted to put together a series of brief videos introducing prospective residents to people who had made the move to these communities. And I remember being really struck by your aptitude and your ability to connect with someone and ask the questions that would call out the most like profound moments, you know, like like I I just I got to know you through how you treated and interacted with and connected with the participants in that project, and that that was really powerful. It was a really cool way to make a friend watching you interact with other people and being like, oh, that's cool. That is someone who knows how to listen very well and and is just so astute with the questions that you asked people. I I remember um you know, we interviewed Ellen Root. We were just talking about her, the the basis for a couple of different bands in Ely. And yeah, this your ability to connect with folks is really profound.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Well, thank you, Lacey. Uh that was I think in an early project for both of us in our um stories of place, and was was really it's an honor. It was an honor to be invited into that because that was one of my first um larger storytelling projects um that helped connect the dots between my community here and the community of Ely. And one of the greatest joys of that project for me was getting to follow you around and uh discover all the amazing people that also exist in this other Wilderness Edge community and all the amazing things that are going on. And you're just a networker and a linker of um yeah, of people. So it I think it's your orientation of people in place that um when when our sort of powers combined, you know, it was a Captain Planet sort of moment of um of that magic and that synergy, as some people call it.

Lacey Squier 9:21

Yeah. There's just like a million other things to say by way of introduction about you, but another thing that compelled me to have you as a guest on this project is um your attunement to like your sensory experience and like the way you live in your body. So you and I had this profound uh experience of being at the Toffee Lake Center together. So we had like a 10-day slumber party. We were at an artist's residency sharing a cabin, and that's kind of intense, right? Because what did you learn about me? I wake up in the morning and I'm like immediately trying to have like deeply philosophical conversation, and you're like, don't talk to me for the first two hours of the day.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

I mean, you never said that, but yeah, maybe like hour. Yeah. I mean, you know, I love that you so sweetly describe my listening abilities, which it uh do not exist nearly as much in the morning. Yeah, it's my my quiet time, and you know, we discovered a lot about each other's rhythms and even had like our first big rupture uh during that uh 10-day period, uh, which means we also got to have our first sort of repair moment. And it was all really beautiful, but really raw and really real and really human. And turns out that is an essential part of um being neighbors and living in community and um learning to coexist in real, in real ways. Like many of us coexist without ever having to have a fight with somebody. Uh, it's debatable uh if all your parts are showing up then in those moments, right? If you're if you're not fighting, maybe parts of you are left out of of what's happening.

Lacey Squier 11:11

Right. That's a that's a wise thing to say. But so yeah, I do want like listeners should know that they actually can watch that project because that's available to view on the Boundary Waters Connect website, the story of us, the the product that ultimately came from that experience at the Tofty Lake Center. But um, where I wanted to go with that was to say, and we'd be having these intense experiences, and there's a lot of emotional ups and downs. And I remember you being like, Well, well, where do you feel that in your body? And me being like, Come again, like what does that mean? Like, I don't know. And and there would be all this intensity, and you have in you the wisdom and the wherewithal to be like, I have to leave, I'm gonna go for a bike ride. I have to leave, I'm gonna go for a paddle. And you you have this daily lived practice of recreating outdoors. Like we had, you know, Eric was a guest on the show, and he is someone who, you know, can he lives in town and then on the regular basis, he goes deep into the wilderness and is immersed for days at a time. But you you are like living on the edge of the wilderness, and on a nearly daily basis, you go and frolic in it.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Frolic, yes.

Lacey Squier 12:28

In whatever way, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Sometimes out of joy and sometimes out of desperation.

Lacey Squier 12:35

So say more about that. Like, what's it like living in Grand Marie? Where do you go and what kind of frolicking do you do? And maybe even say more about the joy and desperation.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Absolutely. I'm gonna start with just this concept that you brought up, which is about paying attention, that invitation to pay attention to your body, right? And that was a thing that um, and I'm just before I dive in to answer your question, that was a uh an idea that I knew of conceptually, but didn't have a lot of experiential practice of being in my body until I moved um out of Minneapolis and here. And the experience of spaciousness uh in the natural world of tangible quiet, uh, to listen to sometimes nothing except for whatever is happening for myself was when that relationship with my body started. So I credit like really the wholeness of who I am uh to to living in this place. And you know, you may have heard that idea of living life from the neck up. Like that's just living in your head, right?

Lacey Squier 13:51

Yeah. Oh no, I do that.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Yeah. I think a lot of us do, and I certainly do too. I I catch myself doing that every day. And so then that has led to this practice of getting out to be um in the most joy-filled ways possible in my body. So um, right before we sat down here to record, we just did a scamper, Brett and Lacey and I, out to uh Artist Point. And uh in the sort of transition of spring here, we froliced out amongst the little boreal landscape that juts out into Lake Superior with the melting snow and ice uh paired with the sort of sun-baked boreal granite that's being sort of kissed by Lake Superior in the waves and just being in the in the breeze. It's just the sensory experience of all of it, right? That was just a quick 20-minute walk, um, but brought us very much into presence with each other, especially for this conversation. So Artist Point's a great place. I right now I'm spending winters in town. So quick frolics or Artist Point. There's a municipal campground where I've interacted with Brett before at the Radio Waves Music Festival, just behind that little space where that stage is set up uh once a year is a delightful trail up to honeymoon. Sorry, Sweetheart's Bluff. And uh that's like sometimes when I need a break from production stuff, I'll go do that loop twice just to get back in my body and out of my head. But there's so many other things, right? And we were talking about, you know, Brett's uh sort of habituates quite similarly to myself, where it's a lot of skiing in the winter. We got pincushion right up here.

Lacey Squier 15:42

I did that this fall for Lucy's birthday. Remember, we went and did that? That was so beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

You did the pincushion overlook hike, if I'm not mistaken, right?

Lacey Squier 15:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Yeah.

Lacey Squier 15:54

It was lovely and profound.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Lacey Squier 15:58

In terms of the vistas.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Yeah, and that's that's a kind of a neat, you know, we all have places that we go for different reasons, and we have the advantage of being on the shore that there are places to go to that overlook the expansiveness of Lake Superior, which is a really magnificent treat to have something like that in Minnesota. So pincushion's a great one. Um, I have own eight acres outside of town that I'm developing my homestead on, and there's a similar hike I can do from there to a place that's called the meadow that's on the Superior Hiking Trail. And I can be up there in half an hour. And I'd say it's quite comparable to the pincushion overlook. Um, and uh so that's those are some great things. Ski trails, mountain bike trails. Um, sometimes I like to go slow, like in the mornings, you know, ease into the day. But boy, do I love going fast skate skiing or mountain biking. Um, that's just a great way to get in the body. And and then not to mention that, we have everything up the Gunflin Trail, the Arrowhead Trail, the Caribou Trail, access to all these boundary waters entry points that can take you anywhere, even to Ely via uh a canoe or kayak.

Lacey Squier 17:12

I'm gonna do that.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Yeah?

Lacey Squier 17:14

I mean, I hope so.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

I mean, I think a great iteration of this podcast would be that we meet like on Knife Lake, which is sort of in bet kind of right in between our our two wilderness edge communities. I'd say it's about a day's a hard, long days paddle.

Lacey Squier 17:31

Yeah. Well, I Eric and I are gonna do a 10-day trip in August, and the details aren't planned because we're both um people who don't necessarily plan details yet. But the goal, I think the ideal scenario in my mind would be to go from the gunflint to Ely, like to kind of paddle home in a sense for me. But yeah, are you a paddler? Do you do um day trips and excursions? Is that included in your um in your scampering and gallivanting?

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Yeah, I I do occasionally do a day trip paddle um by myself or with a friend or two just to get out on the water, especially when it's good swimming weather. Um I'm a big fan of day trips on Seagull Lake. Uh that's at the end of the Gunflint Trail. Uh, I used to guide rock climbing trips on Seagull. There's these beautiful palisades that um come right down to the water. So not only is it a great rock climbing spot, it's a great um place to jump in the water. You can there's so many islands you can actually swim from island to island. What? Um, which is an incredible experience. Um that yeah.

Lacey Squier 18:40

So Do you do do you still rock climb?

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Uh I do still, yeah. Not as often as I used to.

Lacey Squier 18:46

You do everything.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

I uh I'm glad you think so. But usually when I'm in uh on a paddle trip, it's I if I'm gonna do all the work to get all the stuff together, I'm gonna go out for at least a couple of nights, ideally. Right. And really soak in, be disconnected from the internet and from the cell phone and make yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:09

Wow.

unknown 19:10

Right.

Lacey Squier 19:10

Yeah, you you have spent your 11 years here very well, as far as I can tell, because you have created a practice and a and a rhythm for yourself that seems to be leading in positive directions for you, and you are a person who is community service-minded. That's what when and when I'm bearing witness to you, I see that.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Yeah. I think that's a natural extension of the like orientation to relationships, right? And uh we we are our this place, our places are um a network of personalities and human beings, and that makes up the fabric of the place as much as you know, everything else, all the lichens and mosses. So it's it feels important to me to know the people that I live in community with. And um I derive a lot of joy from being exposed to other people's joy, right? So, like when you take me around Ely and you're basically showing me all the things that bring you joy, that brings me joy, and then vice versa. So it's a really powerful way to spread, spread a lot of um positive energy, I guess.

Lacey Squier 20:25

Well, with my Boundary Waters Connect hat on, you know, trying to do work that benefits the community, trying to do work that benefits the economy, and being to some degree theory-driven. There is a theoretical basis for the idea of strengthening our social fabric is a prerequisite for any of the other more um technical maneuvers we might apply.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Absolutely.

Lacey Squier 20:56

And I think that that translates, you know, we also that's not just strengthening our social fabric in Ely or strengthening our social fabric in Grand Murray or Cook or Tofty or Hibbing or what have you. It's creating a regional sense of social fabric as well. And so I feel like my job almost started to make more sense to me when I finally just like came to Grand Marie for a couple days and just followed you around.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Yeah.

Lacey Squier 21:31

Because there's I what I could do is go online and try to look up, you know, organizations and find directors and coordinators and managers and email them and set up meetings and try to get to know people. And I think there's a lot of value in that. And someday I'll probably do that. But what was a lot more fun was just showing up and following you around and then just happening upon small group meetings of cohorts of people who are colleagues and friends, sort of living. The life and doing the work and that like organic approach. Like, yes, we want to strengthen our social fabric, but you can do that by just being an out and about member of a community. Like the it's not a task, it's a lifestyle.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

Yeah. Absolutely.

Lacey Squier 22:18

Also, like I just want to follow you around everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

Yeah. Well, that's a mutual feeling. It was it's really I had a similar experience. I was in Ely uh just in March for the Ely Film Fest. I was staying at your place at a a short film showing, and um had like an eye issue come up, and uh it was so sweet. You we don't have an eye doctor here actually, um and you do in Ely, and so that was amazing. I was able to get into the eye doctor, and it was so um sweet to um go to a place where people knew you, so I felt like I could, you know, say I'm here staying with my friends and they're take good care of me. And then I go to the pharmacy, know the pharmacist, and they take good care of me. And that idea, I think, of knowing the people that you're interacting with on a daily basis and the way that that humanizes our interactions, um I think brings can often bring out the best versions of who we are. That um yeah, is really it's um real. I think even when it especially when it brings out the worst versions of who we are.

Lacey Squier 23:37

I like that you called it real, and I was like, well, it actually kind of feels like it's out of a sitcom. You know what I mean? Like there's like a realness to it, a rawness to it, and there's also this like otherworldliness to it where you kind of like step outside of yourself and you're like, oh yeah, like I I have like the eye doctor's phone number in my phone and have called on an emergency basis and like been seen, you know, like the tender loving care that I have received from my local eye doctor, my local dentist, my local pharmacist, my local grocer. Oh my gosh. So in Ely, we have this What's Up Ely Facebook group, and you know, we know the cashiers. We feel like we're I I'm there many days out of the week, right? And I have a feeling of being in relationship with many of the folks who work there. And someone posted on What's Up Ely saying, like, hey, I'm one of your local cashiers at Zupps, and I just had my baby. Like many people have asked. Here's the announcement of like the birth of my healthy baby girl. And there's like thousands of people have liked it and loved it and sent well wishes, and it's like, oh, this is adorable. Yeah, this is so charming to live in community um that has that kind of intimacy. But then there's also every once in a while the feeling of like, get me out of here. And that's when I realized, like, oh, I can have a relationship with Grand Marie. I can drive two hours and be in like a I I was gonna do a little work retreat and I was like, I want to go somewhere else, but I can't, I'm not like really ready to handle something that's totally unfamiliar. Like there's this sweet spot that I was looking for of like getting away out of my daily routine, getting away from my daily routine, but still seeking like a touch of familiarity. And that drive to Grand Moray was delicious. And the time that I spent here offered just that. It's like, wow, I'm still at home because I feel very at home in the I've I've I'm still in the boreal forest, I'm still in this environment that feels very familiar. There's something about Lake Superior that just feels like you're home in its presence all the time. So, anyways, it was just a revelation to me to realize like, oh, like this whole region is my home. And there's so much to discover. There's so much to discover, and there's such a sense of being at home in it.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

Yeah.

Lacey Squier 26:12

Is that what it feels like to you to come to Ely?

SPEAKER_01 26:14

Absolutely, absolutely. And yeah, and that two-hour drive uh across the Spear National Forest. Um it offers this delicious sort of like pause of life to sort of like oof, get you know, get sort of reset and grounded and then pop into Ely with just a fresh sense of possibilities, um, a fresh sense of wonder and excitement. Um that is is so nice with a with a dash of anonymity. I know it's a dash. Yeah, not complete anonymity, but a dash of anonymity. And I I mean, I think that's we've talked a lot about this idea of cultivating a more robust relationship between our two communities, these sort of sister cities, so to speak. And I think it's hilarious. So I sort of uh we started talking about this early on, but um, if if they are sisters in this analogy, um I think Grand Marie is sort of like that cool, artsy, sort of hip older sister, yeah, older sister, and actually let's say younger sister. Okay, and um who like sort of knows the fashion, sort of has spent some time in the city, and uh is brought that back to this rural community with like a bit of pretentiousness and a snobbery, even right.

Lacey Squier 27:38

Like as a younger sister, I will say that tracks.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Right. So that's kind of Graham Marie in the sister relationship. And then Ely's sort of like that older sister who's like, can I swear?

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

So's seen some shit, yeah, you know, and and made some mistakes and is like a little jaded, yeah, and like um is has nothing to prove really, and isn't gonna go out of their way to show you if that they're cool or not. But you will learn that they are they are cool and they know what they're doing, and maybe don't mess with them, you know, but we'll definitely like take you in and serve you dinner and give you, you know, uh make you a drink from like their best, their best thing in the liquor cabinet, and uh just take good care of you.

Lacey Squier 28:25

Yeah, you know once you're in, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

Once you're in, yeah.

Lacey Squier 28:28

And I mean, granie has all those qualities too, but like no, there is something, there's totally something to that analogy because there's this like there's and it's all things being relative and just speaking from our personal experience, right? But there's like this poshness to Gran Marie, and there's this like grit in Ely. And Ely has posh and Gran Marie has grit, but there is just like there's a it's wild how different these two communities can feel.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

Yeah.

Lacey Squier 28:58

And then also wild what they share.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

Absolutely. And I think that idea that um we do have a lot to learn from each other in that regard, and leaning into cultivating a more vibrant um back and forth um relationship of travel is in our agenda for sure.

SPEAKER_02 29:17

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

And I I mean, I don't know if this is a good time to talk about the um the sort of dance party vision that we are casting as of right now.

Lacey Squier 29:26

Uh, now's the great time to do it. I mean, how does one start to build a stronger relationship city to city?

SPEAKER_01 29:34

Dance party.

Lacey Squier 29:35

Dance party. Yeah. The obvious answer.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Yes. Um, mix and mingle on a dance floor with music, throwing a potluck beforehand for some good home hospitality, and then really just cut loose a little bit.

Lacey Squier 29:49

Yeah. When in doubt, dance it out.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

Yeah. So we're doing we have this idea that we're, you know, we're gonna, we are on January uh May 30th, May 30th, 2026. Uh, the Grand Marie community uh is gonna travel to the Ely community for uh a sweet potluck meal and on the evening of that Saturday, and then transition to uh a live DJ dance party um above the above Northern Grounds. Yeah, the coffee shop.

Lacey Squier 30:22

Actually, the location of the dance party has been updated and it's gonna be at this place called The Huck. And you can get the details in the show notes, but it is gonna be a bit of a house party vibe, and we're gonna be on a property on White Iron Lake. So, again, get the details about the hook, what that is, and where it is through the link in the show notes. Resume regular conversation. And to be to add nuance to the idea of the potluck, it's like an Ely area potluck where Grand Murray folks are invited, right? We don't expect like let the Ely folks um prepare dinner for you. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 31:02

Exactly.

Lacey Squier 31:02

Because Grand Murray folks, like our dream is that anyone really from the whole region, right? It's not only Grand Murray folks who are invited, but we have this um, the two of us that are sort of collaborating and conniving in in in collaboration with DJ Angel and Kelsey Potluck Kitchenware kind of this group effort to have this, this kind of connecting social mixer happen. So the dream scenario is that folks who are coming into Ely from out of town are able like come for lunch, go to a local restaurant for lunch, do some commerce, go on a hike, check out the Dorothy Mulcher Museum or the Wolf Center or the Bear Center, you know, have some sort of like engaging afternoon, and then and then sit back and come to the folk school for dinner. Don't worry about bringing anything. You've traveled all this way. Um, and then get you know, get your sustenance and get fueled up for the dance party.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Absolutely.

Lacey Squier 32:02

And that is another reason why I really wanted to talk to you because you have really been able to, in the last few years of your life, like hone in on what dance can do for you. And I I mean, I'm not gonna lie to you, like, if if we could, like, one of my goals in life is always to um make you cry.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

Okay. Here we go. But that's just not because it's hard, but because it's easy.

Lacey Squier 32:33

Yes, and that's what I love about you. Because you know the wisdom of moving your body, you know the wisdom of dance, and you know the wisdom of self-expression. Yeah, thank you. Um, and I admire that in you. And I admire that in myself as well. That's what we connect about, you know.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

Yes.

Lacey Squier 32:52

Um, but like you are farther along on this journey of knowing what dance can do for like an adult person. Like help me get there.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

Wow. Well, I think most importantly, you already have everything you need to get there because your body knows how it wants to move. And I think that's the most powerful part of it is like when we're children, we just move in a way that brings us joy. And it's not hard to get a kid to dance um or to show love, to express care. Um it it comes pretty naturally, but then we sort of learn all these other ways of having to be in the world. And so it's it, I guess if there's a challenge, it's just like getting some of that out of the way, yeah, and finding an environment where you feel safe and comfortable to move in the way that your body knows how to move. And I think that it is different for different people in the different opportunities that there are to dance. Like I found it through choreography. Um, I needed some, I needed a teacher to show me how to how I could move because I was all locked up in my body. You know, I had only certain ways that I felt like I could move in the world, right? Yeah. And they were maybe, you know, I mean, rock climbing's great, and there's a lot of great movement there, but it's not that.

SPEAKER_02 34:27

Right.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

And so learning to get comfortable exploring what my body could do through choreography, through dance, through Angel's ULA class at the YMCA um helped me connect with my body by do like replicating.

SPEAKER_02 34:42

Right.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

And then through learning that, oh, like my hips can move this way, that like my male body was taught not to. Yeah. And that my um my heartbeat rhythm connects with the rhythm of the music naturally. If I can stay in my body and not in my head. And and then, and then it started to become I can just move on a on a dance floor, or I can just move in the living room, or I can just move in the woods, you know? And so that's, I think, the invitation is to actually let us. Here we go. Okay. It's just to really like come back to the innocence of who we are in that really special way.

Lacey Squier 35:28

And it's it feels so good. It fills the cup. It is our it's our natural state. Like, how do we why why do we why do we lose that?

SPEAKER_01 35:43

Yeah, I mean, I think this is part of what feels like the challenge of our time.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

Is there so much, um, there's so much in our culture, just by virtue of where we've come from, that like a lot of messages about who we have to be and how we have to be to find success. And they're not right or wrong, but they do create a very limited, they can create a very limiting, yeah, a very limiting way of being. And um, you know, I inherited that from my parents who inherited it from theirs, and um everybody's doing the best they can to sort of like cultivate survival in this in this very I think broken uh world. And so finding um who we are outside of those limiting ways of being is one of the most powerful things we can do, and I think is the gift that we sort of can give to the world because that's we need that to create a future with more, more opportunity, more options, more choice, more expansiveness, yeah. And that doesn't start outside of us, it starts inside of us and in our bodies.

Lacey Squier 37:03

Oh, yeah, and being able like it starts inside of us, it starts in our bodies, but there is power. Like I dance, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

You do.

Lacey Squier 37:14

I dance in my living room at like 1 a.m. alone, listening to my headphones very loudly, you know. But there is an argument to be made for like leaving the living room, you know, and going to society hall or actually the argument is for leaving your living room. You can go to someone else's living room and have a dance party. Again, check out the show notes for the information about the huck because that is gonna be a communal dance party, right? I love dancing in the living room of my house alone, but I'm ready to leave the proverbial living room of solitude and dance in community wherever dance parties are happening and having that experience be shared with other bodies in a room.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

Yeah.

Lacey Squier 38:04

And there's there's an argument to be made that, you know, if you want to improve your economy, you have to strengthen your social fabric. There's an argument to be made that if you want to create regionality, you have to throw a dance party.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

Yes. Yep. Yep.

Lacey Squier 38:24

So I'm so excited for the hello neighbor, let's be friends dance party. Absolutely. A Grand Marie and Ely mixer, or if you will, uh Wilderness Edge mixer, uh a regional opportunity together.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

Yeah. And really anybody can come to it. I mean, if somebody's listening to the and is like in St. Cloud, um, they should please come up.

Lacey Squier 38:49

Please come dance with me.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

Or if they're, you know, when I I just want to throw this in. When I think of Grand Moray, Cook County, it's such an expansive place. We have Grand Portage, um, which is a very um robust tribal community. And and if you just sort of continue down the shore, then you have Hoveland, which is its own community, and then you have all these little communities between Hoveland and Grand Moray, like Colville and Croftville. Um I could go on and so Grand Moray, and then the Gumpflin trails its own community with its own robust culture and Tofty and Lutzen and Schroeder.

Lacey Squier 39:25

So So let us not be reductive.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

Yeah.

Lacey Squier 39:28

Lacey, let us not be reductive. This is me talking to myself about the communities in Cook County.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

Yeah.

Lacey Squier 39:35

You taught you're teaching me that.

SPEAKER_01 39:37

Absolutely.

Lacey Squier 39:37

That's why it's so it's nice to have like a a true friend and companion who is in the community who can help me understand some of the dynamics of it.

SPEAKER_01 39:48

Yeah. Yeah. And you know, it's a nice thing is that in those 11 years, I've lived in most of those and worked in different ways and getting to discover the uniqueness. But I will say that in all those places, there are people that like to dance. Uh, and or I would say maybe need to dance. So two different things. You are all invited, and the idea is to do this in Ely and then to do this over here and sort of flip-flop the uh reciprocality of the hospitality and do the potluck, post the potluck here, bring the food for folks from outside of here to come join and and dance. Yeah. So it and then we'll see where it goes after that.

Lacey Squier 40:30

And I have in development, and you know, it's not totally flushed out on the website yet, but I do want to offer to coordinate some home stays for people who for whom like lodging is a barrier. Right. Like there's there's creative solutions. We have we have many lodging establishments in Ely and a variety of like kinds, and we welcome anyone from the region to come stay with us, you know, get a hotel room, Airbnb, what have you, um, go camping. Um, but there are also a lot of people in Ely who have room to spare and who love hosting, which is something I learned through the film festival. And you know, even with the folk school, there are sometimes folks, you know, who host instructors and things like that. So um I think you and I are just very earnest in our desire that we would foster this connection and want to, you know, get you know, personally involved in in helping make it happen for people.

SPEAKER_01 41:27

That's so generous and powerful. And really, I mean, that is if that can happen, what an amazing extension of community building too. Because uh Pawluck is amazing, dance party is amazing, staying in somebody's home, that is a pretty radical expression of hospitality and community. So thank you.

Lacey Squier 41:48

Yeah, and then you get like all the chit chat, right? Because there's like the morning coffee conversation, the pre-bedtime conversation. You know, I don't know what you know, each person, what they have to offer is different, but yeah, like maybe I love a slower. Well, the next episode of the Wilderness Edge podcast is actually gonna talk a little bit about that, like foreshadowing my I had like a very clear goal when I moved to Ely of like what my friendship dreams were and what what what social needs I had. And um, having a slumber party was one of them. And like, yeah, like pillow talk, yeah, a little platonic pillow talk. Like, let's like, oh, do you want to have a slumber party at my house? Like, let's it, I I think like that was like how I lived my life as like a child and in high school and in college, and like that, those parts of me didn't just go away.

SPEAKER_00 42:46

Right.

Lacey Squier 42:47

And I I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, you know, at at like in the What's Up Ely podcast, but when I went to grad school, I have very clear memories of the first day of my student development theory class. Um, my parents had driven me with me 14 hours east to, you know, central Ohio. They were with me all weekend and got me set up in my first like solo apartment. And the morning I drove off to my first graduate school class, you know, like I turned right and they turned left to go back home to Minnesota. And I was just eating my cheeks, like trying not to cry as I like entered grad school. I felt like a kindergartner, you know. And then the first thing my professor D. L. Stewart had us do was read and like a short essay by Sandra Cisneros called Eleven. And it's this like it just it really touched my heart because it's the story of a child who, you know, was like in elementary school and something silly happened that made them want to cry, and they were embarrassed about crying because they were 11 and they shouldn't, they shouldn't cry in school. And they're like, I'm crying like a five year old. I'm paraphrasing wildly, but it's like, but you aren't just 11, you're 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, all of these parts of you are still inside of you. And how like to me, it's like, how do you live your whole life? What felt like to me, my whole life, being someone who had slumber parties on a regular basis. And then now because I'm 37, I'm not supposed to.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

Yeah.

Lacey Squier 44:21

Or now because I'm like an adult, I'm not supposed to dance like a weirdo on a dance floor at a dance party.

SPEAKER_01 44:27

Yeah.

Lacey Squier 44:28

What do you mean?

SPEAKER_01 44:29

Absolutely.

Lacey Squier 44:30

What do you mean? That's still inside of me.

SPEAKER_01 44:32

Exactly. It's so it starts to sound pretty ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02 44:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:37

When you start to think of who you are.

Lacey Squier 44:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:41

And all the ways that you can be.

Lacey Squier 44:44

Right. I grew up dancing and figure skating and having all of my physical activity be like music aligned and expression-based.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

Yes.

Lacey Squier 44:52

And now I just don't do that.

SPEAKER_01 44:53

Absolutely. And I want to, this is another part of uh something that I love about this place is um when I'm dancing in Ula class at Cook County Y, YMCA, or when I'm out on an adventure, I'm often with people who are 30 years older than me, or 30 years younger than me, maybe not younger, maybe more like 20. Um, but it is there's something about this place that um uh empowers people to kind of sort of live to the fullest in the spectrum of life. Yeah. You know, where I've had uh people in their 70s taking me out on ski adventures um or you know, um on that dance floor, and also in their 20s, and the um and I've sat in late-night conversations with some of those same people, um, sometimes crying, sometimes talking about grief or regret and joy and bliss. And I think part of that subliminal messaging that I've gotten here through community, through these relationships, is to be, always be that best self, that life continues to be a robust um menu of possibilities for as long as you are here to do it. So that's really cool. Uh, and to cry.

Lacey Squier 46:32

Cry. Yeah. Let it out. Well, you and I, you know, I referred to the story of us, um, and you referred to the film festival. And I'd love to hear more about Bishiki, but let's go back farther in time. You and I premiered The Story of Us, our short film at the Ely Film Festival in 2025. And in that short film, there's a scene where I am crying. And I'm not a very casual crier aesthetically or in any way.

SPEAKER_00 47:03

Yeah.

Lacey Squier 47:04

And um, that was just part of the plot, right? That was part of the story that we captured when we were together.

SPEAKER_01 47:11

Because it was what was happening, right?

Lacey Squier 47:13

And probably the most commentary, and still like within the last month, I have had someone come up to me and say, I still think about that film, and I still like it was so powerful that you were willing to cry like that in front of us on the big screen.

SPEAKER_00 47:33

Yeah.

Lacey Squier 47:35

And and I, I mean, I am a crier, so I have no choice but to just like embrace it. But I do also hypothesize that maybe everyone would be a little bit better off if we'd all cry more.

SPEAKER_01 47:45

Yeah, yes, yeah. I think so. I think there's a lot of there's a lot of if you need it to be research, that uh all of your feeling states are stored in your body. And so that your body also needs to express those feeling states in order to come back to an equilibrium. And the if when you don't, they stay there and they don't do healthy things. Uh and so, yeah, if if your only motivation is to cry so that you can be healthier, that's a great, that's a great motivation.

Lacey Squier 48:28

You know my favorite fun fact. Your brain is the only organ in your body that doesn't have a gland whose job it is to clean it.

SPEAKER_00 48:36

Oh.

Lacey Squier 48:37

And cortisol residue, stress residue will build and it needs to be cleaned. And there are two ways that you can your body will self-clean cortisol buildup in the brain. Do you know what they are?

SPEAKER_01 48:50

I'm guessing one of them is crying.

Lacey Squier 48:51

Yeah, one of them is crying.

SPEAKER_01 48:52

Is one of them screaming or something?

Lacey Squier 48:55

Uh, good quality sleep.

SPEAKER_01 48:57

Oh, wow. I like that.

Lacey Squier 49:00

Yeah. Right? I mean, but I mean, haven't you felt that?

SPEAKER_01 49:03

You get a good positive reaction from Brad and But don't you know that feeling?

Lacey Squier 49:08

Like you have a really intense cry, and maybe it kind of hurts in the moment, like it actually gives you a head. It can be intense to cry, but then when it's over, you feel really good. Absolutely. Yeah. But I don't want to gloss over what you said about the intergenerational nature of the community in Grand Marie. And I think it it reminds me of um that time I came here, my first sort of like foray into saying, like, I'm ready to build relationships with the Grand Marie community. I'm ready to start in earnest the work of expanding Boundary Waters Connect to honor its dream that it would serve the a fuller kind of sense of the edge of the wilderness. And I wasn't sure how to go about doing that. So I came here and started organically and then was just so pleased to find myself at the Gunflint Tavern with you, where we ran into some of your friends and ended up having an entirely impromptu dinner of new friends, new for me, right? And we had this really powerful conversation around everyone there was a transplant to, you know, in in your case, Gren Marie, and then there's me and Nealy. But it's like, well, what compelled you to move? And what were you looking for when you moved? And what has happened since then? And and there is this like motif of coming of age, and this motif of I'm when I made the decision, it was based in this like yearning, this intuition, and a sense that I was looking to quiet my surroundings so I could hear myself and follow some call. And that, and that's what happened. And then for many people at the table, there was also a bit of a I was gonna say cleansing, or you know, like the you know, everything gets shifted and then the dust settles, and maybe there's some major life changes that happen. But it it's sort of this sense of like it's all for the best. Yeah. And it was the result of alignment, the result of attunement, and yeah, and this sort of like new life that began. And that was a a pretty motley crew of people at a dinner table that happened entirely organically, and we all have this very deeply shared thread of like yearning, change, alignment, and then the ripple effects of what that does for a person.

SPEAKER_01 51:44

Absolutely. And I don't think it makes me wonder how it maybe sounds to somebody who's listening because it's not without hardship or pain or challenge. Uh, in fact, that's all embedded in the process and in that journey. You know, I think one of the things that I learned after my first year here, you know, it the first year was sort of like how I sort of think about it was in the mind of a tourist or the body of a tourist. Like it everything was awe and wonder all the time. And it was also sparkly and it was also wonderful. And then you start to like become part of a community, and then you start to actually see the challenges that a community faces, um, the challenges in myself that come with being in one place for a long enough period of time to notice that like I have I'm oh my my own issues followed me here.

SPEAKER_02 52:56

Ah, shucks.

SPEAKER_01 52:56

Yeah, ah shucks, you know, and so there, I think maybe it is key in keeping with the coming of age, and and that is that you have to sort of confront the darkness or the shadow. And um, I think that's like every community is in a their own process of doing that. And I think a challenge of living in a tourist community is that you know, the image of it is of this idyllic place, which is true. It's ideal because of all the things that are beautiful about it and desirable and that are rejuvenating, but it's also community. And there's also um there's also mental health challenges, there's also resource challenges, there's also violence, um, there's also massive inequities. And those things, like I think staying in one place, in an especially in such an idyllic place long enough to have to sit with the same challenges that are here or that are everywhere else in the world are also here. And in some ways, even more so. Yeah. And certain certain resource-based challenges. Right. And that that is the hard part that I think are it's harder for people to talk about um openly.

Lacey Squier 54:19

For sure. But it is it's the reality of life anywhere. But when your community is as small as these communities are and as intimate as we would like them to be, right? We want them, we want, if we want to know our neighbors, then that means knowing about strife and hardship and inequity. And yeah, I don't I don't have any anything clever to say about that. It's just the real It's something that is challenging because then also there are cycles, and then you start living somewhere long enough to see the cycles repeat. Like, oh, I thought we I thought we figured that one out. Yeah, you know?

SPEAKER_01 55:06

Yep.

Lacey Squier 55:07

Um Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:09

And I I mean I was one of the things that really drew me to the concept of this podcast is talking about some of the edges of the communities, which I think is so needed. Um and I yeah, I like the you know, the the first time somebody was murdered here, it like rocked me. And the first time somebody died of a heroin overdose, and it's just like those two separate things, right? Um really um it was hard for me, it was hard for everybody around me, and I think the thing that was hardest about was um that people didn't really know how to talk about it, and and it was especially hard to talk about it publicly. Um and some of those um unwritten rules that we don't talk about these things that don't sort of go with the image of the place, um, is something that I think at least here as a community, we're still working through.

Lacey Squier 56:22

Oh, certainly in Ely for sure.

SPEAKER_01 56:25

Yeah. And I was it was just uh about a month ago, I was at a film showing here, uh, and it was a documentary uh about Palestine, and it was heavy. It was like a heavy thing to watch, and it was I watched it in community with a bunch of other people, and um uh at the community center, and we were we it was a potluck thing, and I was doing dishes with a friend of mine that was there, and we were in in the kitchen doing the dish room, the dishes, and and just taking a big breath together, and we're able to acknowledge that like that was really heavy and it was really hard to watch, but to be able to watch it in community and feel all of the quote unquote bad or hard feelings with other people together actually felt like an expand, like an expansion of my humanity and like the humanity that we all share. And even though it was it's hard to look hardship or inequity in the face, when we do it and when we can do it in community, we are actually expand like it's that whole expansive idea that we're actually in the fullness of our humanity. And from that place, then we get to actually decide what to do with it, or maybe we don't even do anything with it, maybe we just are there. Right.

Lacey Squier 57:47

Um and maybe that's sometimes why people look away or things go under the rug, so to speak, because it's like, well, there's nothing I can do about that. And it's like, but bearing witness, yeah, bearing witness, um, and just being able to not shy away from like there's even just simply acknowledging is is a place to start, and you don't have to know where something is going in order to make a gesture of of receiving or tender loving care absolutely, and to hold all of that complexity together is actually pretty powerful, you know.

SPEAKER_01 58:32

Some I think we're uh living in our own really hard time in the world right now and um with a lot of complexity, and it's hard to look at that at that complexity head on. However, I would rather look at it head on and live here. Um, I would rather rather look at our challenges head on and live here because I can then go and check out the bursting waterfalls in the spring. And it's not that I have to wallow in the challenges, I can face them and then I can go seek joy. And we've talked about this a lot. That's the theme in the Story of Us film, is that we actually have the most powerful resource to face hardship because we have access to all of this beauty and rejuvenating life. So um I just yesterday I was kind of like drowning in a little bit of like world difficulty, and somebody said it let's go for a bike ride. And went for a bike ride along the shore. And it's not that I was avoiding it, but I was empowered then to just be in my own joy. And then it's always there when I want to come back to it.

Lacey Squier 59:50

Well, I think trusting that we can handle, like we can handle complexity, we can add one more layer of nuance, we can this whatever we're looking at, whatever we're contemplating, whatever we're we're working on in community or on a more global scale, like sometimes the feeling of like, oh my gosh, one more layer of nuance, one more thing to consider. I can't, I can't. And when you're able to tap into awe and those experiences, you have that that opportunity to fill your cup make readies you to confront more.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:31

Yeah, right. And then we're making our world a better place or a more real place by just like letting it happen.

Lacey Squier 1:00:41

That's I think that's really what drew me to Ely and and kind of a yearning for small town living was a sense of having done that before, having grown up in a small town, having generally lived in smaller and smaller communities most of my life. Just I do want to contribute positively. I do want to have access to a sense of agency. And it makes more, I feel that more in a small town. Though, of course, it's not to say, like, right, there's cycles and there's hardship and there's grind and there's so much that's difficult about living in a small town. But then the feeling that you could enact change is more accessible to me than than it was when I lived in St. Paul.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:31

Absolutely.

Lacey Squier 1:01:32

And I could have probably done, I could have done more or done it differently in St. Paul, but I didn't have I didn't have um an a natural sense of knowing the way that I I feel that I do here. But I I do want to give us a heads up that we have to end this conversation someday, which I don't want. But apparently, three-hour podcasts are too long.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:54

Yeah, that's reasonable.

Lacey Squier 1:01:56

Um so I'm wondering if you have any any wrap-up thoughts. Any oh, I did create an opening for you to talk about your film from this year. Bijiki, did I say it correctly?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:06

Oh yeah, yeah, Bajiki. Um, yeah, I'll give I can give a quick uh summary of that. There was uh there's a lot of great things happening in the arts and in the community and in culture here. One example of that was um the North Shore Music Association uh North Shore Music Association brought in uh an indigenous band called Bajiki, and um they did a day of performance and uh interacting with the kids at the school, um, speaking in Ojibwe and um an engaging, um, just uh putting indigenous language and culture on the stage here in a celebrated way, and then also a community performance, which was one of our few completely sold-out performances um at the uh Arrowhead Center for the Arts. And so was able to document that experience and create a short film and put that in the uh Ely Film Fest. And it's powerful. The music's powerful, the testimony from the kids.

Lacey Squier 1:03:17

Uh very powerful.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:18

Yeah. Yeah. I'll say the hardest part about making a short film is how much you don't get to put in it. Yeah. And Brett knows that challenge so closely. But yeah, that that um was in this year's Ely Film Fest and it's powerful. And a huge thanks to everybody who made that happen.

Lacey Squier 1:03:35

Is it gonna be available uh somewhere for folks to view, or you don't have that information?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:40

It actually is currently available on the North Shore Music Association YouTube page. Oh, cool. Um, and I encourage anybody to go check that out. Bajiki B-I-Z H I K I, I think.

Lacey Squier 1:03:54

We'll put a link in the show notes. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:56

Yeah, awesome.

Lacey Squier 1:03:57

Any other final thoughts? We'll just have to have you back, of course.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:01

Well, I'd I'd love to be back and talk anytime. I'm hoping that I see every single person listening at our dance experience, um, or just around it out and about. And I'm really encouraged by the work that you're doing, Lacey. Um agency, you use that word, yeah. Um, is something that I am constantly um gifted from you when we work together that um that it is possible to create the world in which you want to see by an acting presence into it. So thanks for doing that. Thanks for doing this podcast. It's so cool.

Lacey Squier 1:04:41

Thank you for being a part of it. I'm really honored to have you as one of this, like, you know, initial cohort of guests. And I look forward to all of the working collaborations and just general friendship collaborations to come.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:56

Heck yeah.

Lacey Squier 1:04:58

All right, that's all for this episode, folks. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for listening. Thanks again to our special guest, M. Baxley. The Wilderness Edge Podcast is produced by Brett Ross of Boreal Roots Media and brought to you by Boundary Waters Connect. Boundary Waters Connect is the economic and community development project of Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness. You can learn more by visiting Boundrywaters Connect.org.