April 7, 2016, Thursday - The King of Skid Row Exhibit Opening and Author Event at Mill City Museum

Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Location: Mill City Museum, 704 2nd Street South

The opening of a new photo exhibit "Skid Row Minneapolis," featuring the faces and places of downtown's Gateway District in its final years, as photographed by the city of Minneapolis and John "Johnny Rex" Bacich. Bacich owned a bar, a liquor store and a cage hotel, and documented the gritty neighborhood’s last days through photographs and film of his clientele.The exhibit is a companion to the book The King of Skid Row: John Bacich and the Twilight Years of Old Minneapolis by James Eli Shiffer.

Join author James Eli Shiffer for an illustrated presentation and exhibit of photographs based on his new book, The King of Skid Row: John Bacich and the Twilight Years of Old Minneapolis. The book takes readers into the vanished world of Skid Row in Minneapolis through the words and photographs of its most colorful character, John Bacich, a.k.a. Johnny Rex. Rex owned a bar, liquor store and cage hotel and documented the gritty neighborhood's last days through photographs and film of his clientele.

Drawing on hours of interviews conducted before Bacich's death in 2012, Shiffer brings to life the eccentric characters and strange events of an American skid row. Supplemented with archival and newspaper research and his own photographs, Bacich's stories recreate the violent, alcohol-soaked history of a city best known for its clean, progressive self-image.

The event will include a screening of Johnny Rex's skid row films and a small exhibit of his photographs. After the talk, Shiffer will sign copies of the book, which can be purchased in the Mill City Museum store. A cash bar will be available beginning at 6 pm. The presentation begins at 7 pm.

The exhibit will be located in the museum’s central Mill Commons, and is free and open to the public during regular museum hours through July 4, 2016.