In collaboration with the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study, the Sustaining Scandinavian Folk Arts in the Upper Midwest project is excited to host an online concert featuring Maja Heurling and Ola Sandström on Friday, May 7, at 2:00pm Central Time.

Signe Aurell was a Swedish immigrant and poet, and one hundred years after their publication her poems have been set to music by Maja Heurling and Ola Sandström. In 1913, she traveled alone from Sweden to Minnesota, where she worked as a laundress and seamstress. When not working in the homes of others, she wrote labor poetry. In 1919, Signe self-published a poetry collection in Swedish, Irrbloss (Will-o’-the-Wisp), featuring her lyrically powerful work. Her poems, mostly unknown until now, tell of homesickness and the struggle for a better tomorrow. Today, Heurling and Sandström’s musical compositions blend folk music and the Swedish visa tradition to amplify the importance and continued relevance of Signe’s words.