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Electric Bikes: How to Get Started

Perennial Cycle
Perennial Cycle

Provided

Looking for a new way to ride? An electric bicycle, or e-bike, might be just what you need. These motorized machines have been hot-ticket items for a few years now. According to the Light Electric Vehicle Association, the United States imported a record 1.1 million e-bikes in 2022, with more units sold than electric cars. And Minnesota is no exception to the trend—with a handful of local retailers offering e-bikes, in addition to a new statewide rebate program, many riders are hopping on the electric bandwagon.

Know the Difference

The largest distinction between an e-bike and a traditional bicycle is the addition of a battery-powered motor. While the pedals are still functional, the motor propels the bike forward, making the ride a bit less strenuous. Most e-bikes offer multiple levels of power, depending on how much boost and pedal assistance the rider is looking for. This extra help makes biking more accessible across ages and ability levels and allows for faster and farther travel than traditional bikes. In some cases, e-bikes can even replace cars.

In Minnesota, e-bikes are allowed on state trails, or wherever normal bicycles are allowed, if they have two or three wheels, a saddle, fully operational pedals, and an electric motor with an output of no more than 750 watts. E-bikes are categorized into three main classes. Class 1 motors kick in only when the rider is pedaling and cut off at 20 mph; Class 2 motors propel the bike without the rider needing to pedal; and Class 3 is similar to Class 1, with a threshold speed of 28 mph. While no special license is needed, state law prohibits anyone under age 15 from operating an e-bike.

Pedego Avenue
Pedego Avenue

Provided

Get Your Ride Refunded

One potential barrier to owning an e-bike is the price. On the lower end, entry-level models sell for around $1,000 to $1,500, while those in the high-end range can cost $6,000 or more. To increase accessibility and incentivize Minnesotans to switch to sustainable transportation, the state created the Electric-Assisted Bicycle Rebate Program, outlined in the 2024 Minnesota Omnibus Transportation Policy and Finance Bill. Under the program, Minnesota residents who purchase a new e-bike from an eligible retailer can get a portion of the cost refunded. A total of $2 million will be set aside per year in 2024 and 2025 for this effort. The rebates will be income-based, with the maximum set at 75% of the bike’s value up to $1,500.

The new program follows in the footsteps of other states and cities that have seen massive success with e-bike rebates and incentives. According to Forbes, there are 62 active programs offered across 19 U.S. states, with California and Colorado having taken the lead. While Minnesota has yet to reveal a clear timeline for when the Department of Revenue will start taking applications and rolling out rebates, it might be time to start selecting an e-bike. Chances are, the funds will go quickly.

Shop Around

For those in the market for an e-bike, retailers in the Twin Cities and throughout greater Minnesota offer a variety of options. The Richfield-born Erik’s Bike Shop is a treasure trove of all things electric, including mountain, road, commuter, and fat bike versions. Pedego Electric Bikes is one of the largest e-bike brands in the country, and the company has a few locally owned brick-and-mortar locations throughout the metro. North Shore riders should check out e-Bike Duluth and Continental Ski + Bike. In Minneapolis and St. Paul, there are Perennial Cycle, Electric Trails, Freewheel Bike, and Angry Catfish Bicycle, to name a few.

Hit the Trails

Minnesota offers bike-friendly trails across every region, whether riders are looking for a scenic overlook, a lakeside adventure, or an urban escape. In the Twin Cities area, bike along the Chain of Lakes, around Minnehaha Falls, or through Fort Snelling State Park. The North Shore is famous for its biking landscape and picturesque views—the 89-mile Gitchi-Gami State Trail sits along Lake Superior from Two Harbors to Grand Marais. In southern Minnesota, the Mississippi River Trail, between Red Wing and Great River Bluffs State Park, is lined with river bluffs and gorgeous foliage.

Learn Etiquette

E-bikes can operate at much higher speeds than traditional bicycles, so it’s especially important to be mindful of other riders and practice simple trail etiquette. “When riding on state trails, remember to yield to pedestrians and slower trail users, and give an audible signal when passing,” the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources notes. The Three Rivers Park District’s website adds that e-bike passing should always be done on the left. Keep the bike’s speed under control and be careful when approaching a blind corner. Additionally, e-bikers should ride with the flow of traffic, not against it, and stay off sidewalks.

St. Paddy’s Day Recipe Twists

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Reuben Irish Nachos

Photo Jennie Phaneuf

There are more ways to get a taste of Irish-style fare than the classic corned beef and cabbage dinner. In this trio of recipes from the Idaho Potato Commission you can start your morning with One-Pot Corned Beef Hash with Potatoes in which crispy exteriors and pillowy middles of potatoes and corned beef provide the perfect holiday kickoff meal. Bring the pub fare to you with Reuben Irish Nachos, which have everything you need to get in the St. Patrick’s Day spirit. Creamy worlds collide as homemade guacamole tops spuds lending a bit of green to Lucky Irish Twice Baked Potatoes. If you would like to serve up a classic dinner feast for the whole family, you can check out their Instant Pot Corned Beef recipe. Plus, a good Reuben sandwich is delicious anytime. I recently made my own at home (see below)—yum!

Reuben Irish Nachos

Makes 6 Servings | Recipe by Jennie Phaneuf courtesy Idaho Potato Commission

Crisp slices of roasted potatoes get topped with corned beef, sauerkraut, melted Swiss cheese, and homemade Thousand Island dressing. It’s the perfect crowd-pleaser for any occasion. –J.P.

1 pound Idaho red potatoes, cut into 1/8-inch slices
1 tablespoon canola oil
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1½ cups chopped corned beef
1½ cups sauerkraut, drained well
1 cup grated Swiss cheese
½ cup precooked crumbled bacon
3 tablespoons Thousand Island dressing, plus more for serving
2 tablespoons sliced scallions, for garnish

  1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
  2. Add potato slices to a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat.
  3. Transfer the potato slices to the prepared baking sheets, spreading them out in an even layer, making sure not to overlap the slices. Bake for 12 minutes on each side, or until golden and slightly crispy.
  4. Turn the oven down to 350°F. Lightly grease a cast iron pan or small baking dish. Layer the potatoes in the bottom of the pan. Top with chopped corned beef, sauerkraut, and grated Swiss cheese (in that order). Sprinkle with crumbled bacon. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.
  5. Drizzle the dressing over the top and garnish with scallions. Serve immediately.
One-Pot Corned Beef Hash with Potatoes

Photo Elizabeth Lindemann

One-Pot Corned Beef Hash with Potatoes

Makes 4 Servings | Recipe by Elizabeth Lindemann courtesy Idaho Potato Commission

This easy corned beef hash recipe is all made in one pot—no precooking the potatoes required. Small-diced potatoes are cooked in onions and butter in a skillet, with cooked corned beef and parsley added in for an easy breakfast (or lunch, or dinner). It’s perfect served with a fried egg on top and a great way to use up leftover corned beef from St. Patrick’s Day. –E.L.

2 tablespoons butter, divided, plus more if needed
1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
2 cups finely diced red Idaho potatoes, washed and unpeeled (about 1 pound)
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
1 cup water (or the leftover cooking liquid from making corned beef)
2 cups cooked corned beef, finely shredded or diced (about 10 ounces)
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley, plus more for garnish
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon whole coriander seed
Fried or sunny-side up eggs, for serving (optional)

  1. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet with a lid over medium-high heat.
  2. Add the onion to the skillet and sauté until softened and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes.
  3. Add the potatoes and water or cooking liquid from the corned beef. Season with salt and pepper (if using cooking liquid, you will need very little, if any, salt). Stir, bring to a boil, turn heat to low, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes, or until potatoes are cooked.
  4. Uncover and simmer for 5 more minutes, until most of the liquid has evaporated.
  5. Stir the corned beef into the skillet, as well as the remaining tablespoon butter. Turn the heat up to medium high. Cook for about 3 minutes without stirring, until bottom of hash begins to brown. Stir to flip hash around and allow to cook for another 3 minutes or so without stirring, until most of the hash has a good amount of browned, crispy bits (about 10 minutes total). If it starts to cook too quickly or burn, add a bit more butter and/or turn down the heat.
  6. Turn off heat and stir in parsley, rosemary, thyme, and freshly ground coriander seed. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
  7. Serve with sunny-side-up or fried eggs, with extra parsley for garnish, if desired.

Cook’s Note: You can make this with already cooked potatoes as well. Just melt both tablespoons of butter in the skillet, and add the onions, potatoes, and corned beef at once, continuing with instructions as directed from step 5.

Lucky Irish Twice Baked Potatoes

Photo Idaho Potato Commission

Lucky Irish Twice Baked Potatoes

Makes 4 Servings | Recipe courtesy Idaho Potato Commission

The luck of the Irish smiles on these cheesy stuffed baked Idaho potatoes with California Avocado and guacamole.

For the Baked Potatoes
2 large Idaho russet potatoes, scrubbed
2 tablespoons butter
¼ cup sour cream
¼ cup milk
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 cup grated jack cheese or grated cheddar-jack cheese
½ cup chopped chives
1 ripe, fresh California avocado, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks
Salt and pepper, to taste

For the Guacamole
1 ripe, fresh California avocado, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves
½ teaspoon salt, or to taste

Guacamole

  1. Mash avocado chunks with lime juice in a medium bowl.
  2. Add cilantro and salt. Blend until creamy.

Baked Potatoes

  1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Bake whole potatoes in oven for 1 hour; remove potatoes and reduce oven temperature to 350°F.
  2. Let potatoes rest for 5 minutes, then cut in half lengthwise and scoop out potato flesh into large bowl. Remove potato jackets.
  3. Add butter, sour cream, milk, salt, pepper, and cheese to potato in bowl. Whip until creamy with electric hand mixer. Mash avocado chunks with lime juice in a medium bowl.
  4. Gently stir in chives and avocado pieces.
  5. Spoon mixture into halved potato jackets and bake in 350°F oven for 20 minutes.
  6. Top each with a heaping spoonful of guacamole to serve.
Reuben Sandwich

Photo Mary Subialka

Reuben Sandwich

Makes 1

I love a good Reuben sandwich anytime, and it feels especially timely around St. Patrick’s Day. I enjoy it at a restaurant and figured I could make it at home, too!

Just lightly butter the inside of the rye bread to keep it from getting soggy, add some Thousand Island dressing, a slice of Swiss cheese, a few slices of corned beef (I used 3, it depends on your preference), sauerkraut (about ¼ cup per sandwich, slightly drained), then top that with another slice of Swiss cheese and close with a lightly buttered slice of rye with another layer of Thousand Island dressing. Butter the outside of the bread and slowly heat in a pan over low heat, flipping until both sides of the bread are lightly browned and crispy, the cheese is melty, and the meat is warmed.

Tips: To make sure the meat is warmed through, you can lay your slices on the pan over low heat for a minute before preparing the sandwich. Also, if you have a cover that works with your pan, it can help keep some heat in to warm the inside of the sandwich.

Hungry for More?

St. Paddy’s Day Celebration Essentials

From the corned beef and cabbage dinner and Irish soda bread to a festive cocktail, we make sure you have even more recipes to choose from for St. Patrick’s Day.

Curtains Closed: Peter Brosius Looks Back on Time at CTC

Peter Brosius at stage left
Peter Brosius at stage left

Photo by Nate Ryan

It’s a bright, chilly evening in south Minneapolis, and Peter Brosius’ office is a moderately tamed mess of slanted books and slumped toys.

Going on nearly three decades with Children’s Theatre Co. (CTC), the artistic director combines Pinocchio energy (spirited, youthful) with a Geppetto pedigree (seasoned, renowned). He’s the type to smile, full, after speaking, and the phrase “of good cheer” comes to mind. As a young theater talent in New York, he went through a clowning and physical theater period that sputtered from lack of inspiration—to rev up, instead, amid the collaborative highs of directing—but today he thinks about a puppeteer, Autumn Ness. Her work on a particular CTC show was so effective that it stuck with him. He plucks a tissue from a box on his desk, pantomiming her work. Kids in the audience, after the performance, remembered the puppets but not her face. “Take that as love,” he recalls telling her, “rather than, they didn’t notice you showed up!

That preschool-age show, “The Biggest Little House in the Forest,” debuted in 2010 and marked a high of his time with CTC: “a beautiful piece about a butterfly who finds an abandoned house,” he explains. “It’s all dusty and crummy … and the butterfly sets about to clean the house up and make it perfect.” The show imparts to kids the value of making room, even for a hazardously large bear. “It’s about how we take care of each other. It’s about all kinds of things.” It could allegorize his tenure, too.

In June, Brosius departs after 27 years. He now wonders, “What’s another way to make work? What’s another way to be of service?” His wife, playwright and fiction writer Rosanna Staffa, with whom he lives in Edina, has introduced him to “the world of fiction.” But, at press time, no one path had cleared. 

“I wanted to go out while I still love it with all my heart and love everybody I work with, and I didn’t want to overstay my welcome,” he says. The move ushers in a new era for CTC, the Minneapolis institute founded under a different name in 1961, which bills itself as the largest theater serving young and multigenerational audiences—the nation’s “flagship” for kids.

“Peter is one of the most passionate human beings I’ve ever met in my life,” says Reed Sigmund, company member and star of CTC’s “Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” “I’m really going to miss his quest for—I don’t want to say ‘perfection,’ because perfection doesn’t really exist. But he doesn’t settle.” 

Since taking over CTC in 1997, Brosius has helped the theater sparkle. In 2003, it became the only children’s theater to win a Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. That year, the tender-hearted “A Year With Frog and Toad” netted three Tony nominations, including Best Musical—the most of any Minnesota show, CTC claims. Season by season, Brosius balanced more than 70 new productions with ticket-sellers like the beloved annual “Grinch,” which, he says, made record sales last year.

His time has been about expansion, too: Under Brosius, CTC reports it more than doubled its annual budget, from $6 to $13 million. He has rolled out ticket subsidies for families facing economic challenges. With a famed local fairy tale expert, his mentor Jack Zipes, he started a “critical literacy” program for kids that has gone national. Most recently, CTC launched a project to develop 16 works by Black, Indigenous, Asian American, and Latinx writers, in partnership with St. Paul’s Penumbra Theater and three coastal companies.

But not all has glimmered. The theater’s precocious ingenuity soured to infamy when lawsuits arose in 2015 over child abuse at CTC during the 1970s and early ’80s, before Brosius’ time. He was called upon to deliver reparations.

In July, Rick Dildine takes over, hailing from Alabama. Dildine describes Brosius as someone who brings “all of himself” to relationships. “Peter is one of those lions of American theater,” he says by phone. “What I think he has been so good at, that I also value, is the importance of getting the right people at the table.”

Peter Brosius leaves Children's Theatre Co. after 27 years
Peter Brosius leaves Children’s Theatre Co. after 27 years

Photo by Nate Ryan

Must Go On

In Brosius’ office, golden hour floods the windows and exposes all his laugh lines. He had recounted CTC highlights by phone days before. Attuned to local history and current events, Brosius has a reputation for commissioning “difficult” stories. Kid protagonists spar with colossal topics blundering in from the politically fraught world of adults. Suitably, if also strangely, he dwells on a lack of directorial control.

Two and a half years after he started work on a play about a farm family scraping through a drought, it opened the day arid agricultural conditions filled Minnesota headlines. “We had farmers coming from two and a half hours away,” he says, noting the 2003 play grappled with higher suicide rates among farmers. “They’d heard about the show, and they needed to see it.”

Other times, it’s more orchestration than fortuity. He read up on Sudanese refugees in Fargo, North Dakota, before commissioning 2007’s “The Lost Boys of Sudan,” about an “epic journey” through Midwest weather and culture.

But the random hits of electricity enthrall him most. In previews for “Spamtown, USA,” a play matching kids against southern Minnesota’s bitter Hormel strikers and execs, the humor fizzled. The commission opened early 2020, and suddenly the audience went “delirious.” The actors locked in. At intermission, Brosius stayed quiet, lest he jinx it. “There’s something about the alchemical nature, that human nature, of this artform.”

Growing up in Riverside, California, he started out in theater by way of his mom. She worked as a secretary and tapped her joys—her social life, her excuse to leave the house—through acting, he says. His father, an Air Force officer, had died in a training accident when Brosius was 2. He recalls a youth booming with independence. He had free rein to, for example, travel through Canada and Mexico in his teens. Acting in school or community plays could provide a “surrogate family” feeling, and a high school-age castmate singing “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” could “rock the theater” and evoke pride and togetherness. That ability to move people—it “gives you incredible power as a kid.” Hard work, meanwhile, could garner adult respect. All that excited him.

Years later, he would puzzle over his “voice.” He consumed a lot of theater upon moving to the East Coast, where he earned an MFA from New York University in 1980: the “groundbreaking,” California-sprung Chicano work of Teatro Campesino; the “beautifully made” queer aesthetics of Ridiculous Theatrical Company. “There’s something about that theater, that’s speaking to a community, allied with a community,” he says, “that’s very, very beautiful to me.” He wondered, ‘OK, I’m a straight white guy from Southern California. Like, where does that fit for me?

One summer night, the piers were on fire in New York, and he and two former NYU classmates were putting on “The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria”—“about class, about colonialism.” The premiere drew a downtown hipster crowd. “And I remember thinking, ‘I hope they like it.” Then, he stopped. “‘That is such a low reason to make something.’” For a good time. For idle enjoyment. He walked out. “And it was like I walked into Hell. The sky was orange, and it was 1,000 degrees.”

After having toured children’s theaters in Europe, he realized nothing amazed him in the U.S. market. In Europe, “what was happening was bold and political and provocative and beautifully done.” For kids, he thought, there was potential. “I can be an ally. I can help their voice have respect.”

Before CTC, Brosius directed a theater project for more than a decade in L.A., then ran a children’s theater for two years in Hawaii. At a festival during his L.A. chapter, he saw a revelatory, high-energy show for preschoolers from a Swedish company. He later visited that company, Dockteatern Tittut. It helped him frame preschool work as activistic: “Neural pathways are being formed between 2 and 5. If you don’t exercise them and you don’t activate them—these are real losses to developmental abilities.” Under him, CTC launched trauma-informed preschool programming, much of it “highly subsidized.”

Some other takeaways from his Dockteatern Tittut partnership: outlining the show before it starts and handing out custom booties to audience members. “You’re instantly transformed when you’re wearing these booties.” He sounds inspired. “Instantly!”

The high of directing, for Brosius, “is when you’re in a moment, and you’re working with actors, and their ideas are flowing, and your ideas are flowing, and you don’t know exactly where you’re going, but you’re investigating something, and it is so much fun.” 

Amid today’s joys—in remembering, in analyzing—mention of the lawsuits appears to pain him. Blue shadows have seeped in. He shuts his eyes, taking a sharp breath through his nose.

“He inherited a nightmare,” says Laura Stearns, who filed the first of 16 civil suits against CTC following the passage of the Minnesota Child Victims Act. She called for institutional accountability and faults CTC and Brosius for what she describes as a “This wasn’t us” stance. An early CTC release stated, “While this development is unwelcome in the sense that it returns to the forefront events from a difficult chapter in our history, we stand with any victim of abuse in his or her desire to see justice done.”

Stearns now leads a nonprofit that finances aid for survivors, and she says the $500,000 therapy fund CTC pledged in 2019 amounts to “a drop in the bucket compared to what’s needed to really, truly help people.” Details of the court settlement were confidential, and CTC is refraining from comment, explaining in an email that “saying anything could be triggering and painful to those who continue to suffer from past abuse.”

“Now, we’ve just been doing our work,” Brosius says—strengthening and disseminating policies. He and Stearns say relations withered after CTC appointed its lawyer to the board. Following blowback, CTC removed the lawyer, Brosius says. But for Stearns, “it was very, very damaging” to stay in relationship.

“We don’t want any family to go through this,” Brosius says. “We don’t want any organization to go through this, because … You know, I’m a dad.” His son studies TV writing, and his daughter practices law, both out East. “You want to protect your kids.”

He allied himself to young audiences, so has he ever created with his child self in mind? At first, Brosius says he isn’t sure and seems reluctant to consider it. “I like to think about work in which young people have agency,” he offers. In his productions, kids often piece things back together. They are Cindy Lou Who, or the children of strikers in Austin, Minnesota, or the defiant Morris Micklewhite in a tangerine dress. “I was always conscious of, when you create a community, how are you welcomed?” Here, he thinks back: As the kid of a single mom—who would remarry and divorce, he says, making his the only family of separation at school—he thought a lot about hospitable spaces. A theme seems to emerge here: to “create both a room to make the work and then a story that says to the audience, ‘You’re part of the story.’”

Also: Children’s Theatre Co. has announced its 2024-25 season.

Best Bets: March 11-17

Parade Aplenty

What:St. Patrick’s Day Parade
When: March 16
Where: Downtown St. Paul, starting at Rice Park

One of the nation’s largest St. Paddy’s Day parades is on Saturday instead of March 17 this year because Sunday is a holy day. The parade kicks off at noon at Rice Park and end at Mears Park.

Celebrate Celtic Culture

What:Celtic Festival
When: March 16
Where: Hjemkomst Center, 202 First Ave. N., Moorhead

Discover the history, arts, and tradition of the seven Celtic Nations—Brittany, Cornwall, Isle of Man, Galicia, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales—at this 20th annual event in the Fargo-Moorhead are.

Civil Rights Moment

What: ‘A Unique Assignment’
When: Opens March 16, through April 7
Where: History Theatre, 30 E. 10th St., St. Paul

In this theater production, two men—Henry Gallagher, white, and James Meredith, Black—are thrust into each other’s lives in the aftermath of the Ole Miss Riot. Explore a milestone moment in Civil Rights history through the men’s own words and perspectives on their shared experience.

Lead With Love

What:VocalEssence WITNESS: Leading with Love
When: March 17
Where: Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis

Vocal activist Melanie DeMore joins the VocalEssence Chorus and Ensemble Singers and diverse teenage choir VocalEssence Singers Of This Age with a program including works by contemporary Black composers Damien Geter, Marques Garrett, Joel Thompson, and songs from the African diaspora. 

St. Paddy’s Day Specials

What: St. Patrick’s Week Specials
When: Through March 17
Where: Mason Jar Kitchen & Bar, 1565 Cliff Road, Eagan

Embrace the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day all week long with traditional Irish entrées, along with special desserts and libations. Entrées feature shepherd’s pie, corned beef & cabbage, bangers & mash, and Reuben & Rachel sandwiches.

ONGOING
“Hells Canyon”

Rich Ryan

Get Spooked in Spring

When: Through March 17
Where: Jungle Theater, 2951 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis
In Theater Mu’s world premiere of “Hells Canyon,” five friends head up to a cabin in the woods. What starts as an innocent trip turns into a horrorscape as old grudges, new betrayals, and a mysterious outside force threaten them. This fast-paced play by Keiko Green is directed by Twin Cities theater favorite Katie Bradley and stars Kaitlyn Cheng, Ryan Colbert, Becca Hart, Matt Lytle, and Gregory Yang.

 

Autumn Ness in “Babble Lab”

Glen Stubbe Photography

Science Scene

What: “Babble Lab”
When: Through April 14
Where: Cargill Stage at Children’s Theatre Company, 2400 Third Ave. S., Minneapolis

When an experiment unexpectedly goes awry, a concoction of sneaky, sprightly letters takes over a weird science lab. Watch them jump into jars, spring from drawers, bounce around the room, and play hide-and-seek as a scientist makes her findings. Created with early learners in mind.

 

“Beautiful”

Dan Norman

One Fine Day

When: Now open
Where: Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, 501 W. 78th St., Chanhassen
The true story of singer Carole King follows her life from teen to Grammy-winning songwriter, best known for her album “Tapestry.”