Armed with Our Language, We Went to War:  The Navajo Code Talkers

White Tank Library 20304 W. White Tank Mountain Road, Waddell, AZ, United States

During WWII a select group of young Navajo men enlisted in the Marines with a unique weapon.  Using the Navajo language, they devised a secret code that the enemy never deciphered.  For over 40 years a cloak of secrecy hung over the Code Talker’s service until the code was declassified and they were finally honored […]

Free

Saving the Great American West:  The Story of George Bird Grinnell

Eloy Santa Cruz Library 1000 N. Main St., Eloy, AZ, United States

The great West that George Bird Grinnell first encountered in 1870 as a 21-year-old man was shortly to disappear before his eyes.  Nobody was quicker to sense the desecration or was more eloquent in crusading against the poachers, the hide-hunters, and the disengaged U.S. Congress than George Bird Grinnell, the “Father of American Conservation.”  Grinnell […]

Free

The Eagle and the Archaeologists: The Lindberghs’ 1929 Southwest Aerial Survey

Good Shepherd of the Hills Episcopal Church 6502 E. Cave Creek Rd., Cave Creek, AZ, United States

Charles Lindbergh is best known for his famous 1927 flight across the Atlantic Ocean.  But few realize that Lindbergh and his wife, Anne, played a brief but important role in archaeology.  In 1929 they teamed up with noted archaeologist Alfred Kidder to conduct an unprecedented aerial photographic survey of Southwest prehistoric sites and geologic features […]

Free

Sonoran Strange – Poetry and Performance

The Icehouse 429 W. Jackson St., Phoenix, AZ, United States

Join Arizona Humanities, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and ASU's Performance in the Borderlands for an evening of poetry and performance exploring the Arizona-Sonora borderlands. Special appearance by Arizona's poet laureate Alberto Rios. FREE and open to all!

Free

By the Time They Came to Phoenix:  African American Cotton Pickers in Arizona

The Museum of Casa Grande 110 W. Florence Blvd, Casa Grande, AZ, United States

Featuring a documentary that tells the stories of early African American cotton pickers in El Mirage and in other regions of Arizona, this presentation explores the lives of African Americans who came to the cotton fields from Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma during the 1940s through the 1960s.  These individuals made significant cultural, historical, and […]

Free

Archaeology Café (Phoenix): Pottery…A Direct Link to Our Past

Macayo's Central 4001 N. Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ, United States

On February 17, 2015, traditional potters and educators Jacob Butler and Ron Carlos (Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community) will share their perspectives on heritage and connecting to the past. Archaeology Café is an informal forum where adults can learn more about the Southwest’s deep history and speak directly to experts. We have based Archaeology Café […]

Free

“And Ya Don’t Stop”: Hip Hop and American Popular Culture

Glendale Community College Student Union 6000 W. Olive Ave, Glendale, AZ, United States

This presentation will demonstrate that hip hop and rap is, as Robin D.G. Kelley argues, “arguably the post Civil Rights Era’s highest form of creative, extemporaneous, ever evolving form of communication and expression.” Whitaker will argue that it developed as collective critique of the stigmatization and marginalization of black youth, and has evolved into a […]

Free

Arizona Kicks on Route 66

Dorothy Powell Senior Adult Center 405 E. 6th St., Casa Grande, AZ, United States

U.S. Route 66, known as the “Mother Road,” was built in 1926. It ran from Chicago to L. A. During the depression of the 1930s, it became the major path by which people migrated west, seeking work, warm weather and new opportunities. Shore shares the history of Route 66 in Arizona, including the impact it […]

Free

The Vulture Gold Mine

Desert Caballeros Western Museum 21 N. Frontier Street, Wickenburg, AZ, United States

Discovered in 1863 by Henry Wickenburg, the Vulture Gold Mine was the first big gold mine in Arizona.  The mine and its colorful cast of characters, along with the town of Wickenburg, were instrumental in stimulating considerable growth and development in Central Arizona. This presentation will share the multi-layered story of the gold mine, thus […]

Free

He Called It a Dream, but It Woke Us Up!

Estrella Mountain Community College Conference Center 3000 North Dysart Road, Avondale, AZ, United States

Vicariously experience the environment and atmosphere of a 1960s-era Civil Rights Movement camp.  Through theatrical performance, music, poetry, and participatory activities, audience members will examine the culture of discrimination, racial prejudice, and social injustice in the United States as it was during the 1960s.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s strategy of passive resistance will be […]

Free

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