Why Arizona Dark Skies Matter with Matthew Goodwin

Verde Valley Archaeology Center 460 W Finnie Flat Road, Camp Verde, AZ, United States

Flagstaff, Arizona was the world’s first community designated an International Dark Sky Place for its active efforts reduce light pollution and protect the visibility of the night sky. There are now over 130 dark-sky communities, places, and parks globally. Arizona alone has 17 dark-sky places, which is more than any other country in the world. […]

FREE

Plants of the Mojave Desert and the Traditional Tribal Uses with Carrie Calisay Cannon

Pueble Room, Monte Vista Village 8865 E. Baseline Road, Mesa, AZ, United States

Although the desert may seem like a desolate landscape devoid of life, it is actually home to hundreds of unique species. Some are only visible or appear alive for a short time, others grow for hundreds of years, and many are not found anywhere else on earth. Participants will learn about the many traditional Tribal […]

FREE

Social Art-ivism: Black Panther Culture, From Oakland to the World with Pamela Mays McDonald

UA Poetry Center, Rubel Room 1508 East Helen Street, Tucson, AZ, United States

Join Pamela Mays McDonald, Arts Advocate, Historian, Activist, and Curator, for a discussion and exploration of a case study on Oakland’s Black Panther culture. The motto that propels her art activism is “Yesterday’s histories unravel today’s mysteries.” Mays McDonald explores Black culture through multiple artistic lenses — language, music, visual and performing arts, literature, poetry, […]

FREE

Black Woman Rising: African American Community Mothers in Phoenix with Akua Duku Anokye

Buckeye Valley Museum - 116 E. MC85, Buckeye, AZ 85326 116 East MC85, Buckeye

African American women have had a tremendous impact on the lives of Arizonans. In a project I’ve been working on for the past 20 years, I have had the privilege of interviewing some of these amazing women. I call them othermothers/community mothers–these social activist who emerged from the Black woman-centered network of community. Let me […]

FREE

Water in the Southwest: Where Have We Been, and Where Are We Going? with Jennifer Richter

Heroes Regional Park Library- Yucca Meeting Room 6075 N 83rd Avenue, Glendale

It has been said that “Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting.” This is especially true of water politics in the American Southwest, a region defined by its lack of water. The massive 20th century federal investments into dam systems controlled the great rivers of the West, allowing cities like Phoenix to “bloom like […]

FREE

Deconstructing the Taco: The History and Lore of a Beloved Food with Gregory McNamee

Pima County Public Library - Salazar-Ajo Branch 15 W Plaza ST #179, Ajo, AZ, United States

The foods of Arizona speak to the many cultures, native and newcomer, that make up our state. Consider the taco, that favorite treat, a staple of Mexican and Mexican American cooking and an old standby on an Arizonan’s plate. The corn in the tortilla comes from Mexico, the cheese from the Sahara, the lettuce from […]

FREE

Southwestern Rock Calendars and Ancient Time Pieces with Allen Dart

Coolidge Public Library 160 W. Central Avenue, Coolidge, AZ, United States

Native Americans in the U.S. Southwest developed sophisticated skills in astronomy and predicting the seasons, centuries before non-Indian peoples entered the region. In this presentation archaeologist Allen Dart discusses the petroglyphs at Picture Rocks, the architecture of the “Great House” at Arizona’s Casa Grande Ruins, and other archaeological evidence of ancient southwestern astronomy and calendrical […]

FREE

The Underground and Overground Railroad with Tamika Sanders

San Tan Library- Bronze Room 31505 N Schnepf Rd, San Tan Valley, AZ, United States

Using storytelling, historical artifacts and songs, this presentation will depict the ingenuity and resiliency used by those involved in the Underground Railroad to help over 100,000 enslaved people escape to freedom between 1810 and 1850. We’ll then fast forward to the Jim Crow era and explore the Overground Railroad created by the Green Book which […]

FREE

Growing in the Desert: The History & Culture of the Tohono O’odham with Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan

Fountain Hills Community Center 13001 N La Montana Dr, Fountain Hills, AZ, United States

Many Arizonans call the Sonoran Desert and its striking landscapes home. Long before our urban centers and city lights lit up the dark desert skies, the Tohono O’odham were cultivating and shaping the land with abundant agriculture—from squash and beans to corn and cotton. For generations they passed down their rich knowledge and culture grown […]

FREE

Landscapes of Extraction: The Art of Mining in the American West with Betsy Fahlman

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

Mining is the transformative industry of the American West—one that competes in scale and in color with the scenic landscape on its own terms, with the industrial sublime dynamically coexisting with the natural one. These landscapes are located at the bedrock of economic development—the risky speculation from which huge fortunes could be made and lost—and […]

FREE

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