The Beat
Stories, news & culture from around the Black Hills
Local voices. Big stories. The people, places, and moments shaping our creative community.
Welcome to our little corner of the Black Hills where we keep our finger on the pulse, our ear to the ground and our eyes on the stage. The shows, the openings, the late-night sets, the tucked-away venues, and the artists shaping the culture of our community. We’ll be out there taking notes so you don’t miss what matters. If it’s unfolding locally and worth talking about, you’ll find it here.
Spotlight
JuneFest
June Fest Celebrates Five Years in Rapid City Free two-day festival features Dizzy Wright, Montana of 300 and artists from across the region Now in its fifth year, the free two-day festival…
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Spotlight
Father’s Day Events Around the Black Hills
Fathers’s Day is coming up in the Black Hills this weekend! We pulled together a list of events happening around the Hills we thought would be fun to do with your pops…
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Spotlight
Four Days of Greenway Days Celebrate the Trails, Parks and History That Connect Rapid City
People walk dogs along the paths, yclists cut across town, nglers work the edges of Rapid Creek. Families spread out under the trees at Founders Park. What began as a response to…
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Spotlight
Black Hills Playhouse Opens 80th Season with a Look at America’s 250 year History.
The Playhouse opens its 80th season this weekend with The Complete History of America (abridged), a comedy that attempts the impossible: squeezing roughly 600 years of American history into a 90-minute theatrical…
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Spotlight
Get to Know: Johnny Hastings
Inside the life, music, and upcoming album of one of the Black Hills’ busiest musicians On Memorial Day weekend, Johnny Hastings played outside at Canyon Grille near Boulder Canyon to a crowd…
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Backstage
Take Me To Your Moon: Journeys into the World of Dementia
Works by Yoko “Tenyoh” Sugawara Voices rise and fall, a murmur from neighboring galleries, distant in every way. Here, in Yoko’s world, the silence flows deep, rings in the heart, and whispers…
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Backstage
Black Hills Soul: Album Releases at Murphy’s Pub
“What is Peace?” drops May 1. The release show is Saturday night in downtown Rapid City. All four members of Black Hills Soul spent time chasing music somewhere else before settling in…
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Backstage
Heart of the Rebellion (A Star Wars fan film 23 years in the making) premieres May the 4th at the Elks Theatre
In 2003, Marc Linn read a line in Entertainment Weekly that said no one could make a feature-length Star Wars fan film and actually keep an audience. He saw that as a…
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Johnny Lonesome
Johnny Lonesome Johnny Lonesome is the solo persona of Johnny Sundby, a longtime Black Hills musician and co-founder of The…
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