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

Dia de los Muertos Storytelling with Zarco Guerrero

Superstition Mountain Museum 4087 N. Apache Trail, Apache Junction, AZ, United States

Dia de Los Muertos is a highly celebrated and significant holiday held throughout Mexico, Latin America and the Southwest. It is a day when homage is paid with prayers, offerings of food and the building of altars to those who have gone before us. Join Zarco and his unique masked characters as they celebrate Día […]

FREE

Chiles & Chocolate: Sweet and Spicy Foods in the American West with Chris Glenn and Sandy Sunseri

Holland Community Center 34250 N 60th St., Scottsdale, AZ, United States

Come have a taste of the rich and savory history of these food favorites, explore how early peoples used them, and how they have evolved and spread to all corners of the world. Food is a portal into culture and can convey a range of cultural meaning including occasion, social status, ethnicity, and wealth depending […]

FREE

Assembling the Southwest: The History and Geography of a Region with Scott Warren

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

Our region is a diverse and contrasting patchwork of cultures, resources, and environments. So how did the Southwest and its cultural and natural icons become so distinctive in our collective imagination? In this richly illustrated presentation we will pull from the broad discipline of cultural geography to explore the historical processes that made the Southwest […]

FREE

The Underground and Overground Railroad with Tamika Sanders

Mohave County Library District - Lake Havasu City Branch Community Rooms A/B 1770 McCulloch Blvd, Lake Havasu City, 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

The Road to Inequity: Understanding the Wealth Gap with Matthew Whitaker

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

We often hear about the widening wealth gap in the United States. If we look back through history, federal policies and discriminatory practices, from redlining to the current gender wage gap, have contributed to lasting social and economic inequities. Who holds the wealth now? How was that wealth acquired? Can we move toward a more […]

FREE

Climate Conversations: Connections to Natural Material: Native Culture Today and Tomorrow with Yolanda Hart Stevens

Arizona Humanities 1242 N. Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ, United States

From birth to death, the mesquite tree is an integral part of life for many who call the desert home. The mesquite tree is just one of many holistic materials, elements of our natural environment, that are vital to sustaining Native culture and practices. But climate change and environmental degradation are changing the landscapes of […]

FREE

They Beat the Heat: How Arizonans Survived the Desert Heat in the Days Before Air Conditioning with Christine Reid

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

Drawing from multi-cultural influences of the variety of people who helped build Arizona, discover how creative adaptations in lifestyle, architecture, building materials, town planning and even humor all contributed to surviving intense desert temperatures. What have we forgotten and what can we learn from the wisdom of those who came before as climate becomes a […]

FREE

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