Central Arizona

Featuring compelling documentaries based on interviews, this presentation shares stories about prominent African Americans who contributed to the life and culture of Arizona.  Such luminaries include the late Dr. Eugene Grigsby, Betty Fairfax, Judge Jean Williams, Rev. Warren Stewart, Councilman Calvin Goode, and Carol Coles Henry.  Each individual’s life is contextualized using prominent events that […]

When the first dining guide to the Valley of the Sun appeared in 1978, the authors had to explain what “sushi” was. Fast forward four decades, and Arizonans are munching rainbow rolls in shopping-mall food courts. The restaurant business in Arizona now brings in more than $11 billion a year. With stories, statistics and insider […]

Prostitution was a main stay business of frontier communities and Tucson was no exception. From 1870 to 1910, Tucson prostitutes worked openly without local government interference. However, as Tucson shed its frontier label for respectable city, Tucson began slowly to condemn its ‘soiled doves.” The talk will examine the lives of Tucson’s prostitutes, their struggles, […]

Featuring compelling documentaries based on interviews, this presentation shares stories about prominent African Americans who contributed to the life and culture of Arizona.  Such luminaries include the late Dr. Eugene Grigsby, Betty Fairfax, Judge Jean Williams, Rev. Warren Stewart, Councilman Calvin Goode, and Carol Coles Henry.  Each individual’s life is contextualized using prominent events that […]

When the African slave was brought to the Caribbean and North and South America, s/he brought her oral literature and performance style. This presentation focuses on the transfer of those oral traditions from African culture to African American culture. Such traditions can be heard in trickster stories, but also observed in the narration of myths, […]

Arizona played a key role in preparing to send humans to the moon in the late 1960s/early 1970s. The Apollo astronauts themselves traveled to the Grand Canyon and volcanic fields around the state to learn geology and practice their lunar excursions. Meanwhile, U.S. Geological Survey engineers worked with NASA staff members to develop and test […]

Although history tries to tell us ONLY men settled the Old West, that is shattered by Jana’s verbal tour through some of the amazing women who made all the difference. Any woman who came West in the 1800s had to be full of grit and spit to survive and Jana has collected the stories of […]