Beyond the Kitsch: The Pervasive Spirit of Our Indigenous Creative Community with Nanibaa Beck

Yuma Main Library - Meeting Room A 2951 S 21st Dr, Yuma, AZ, United States

Throughout the Southwest, tourists and locals encounter a range of Indigenous art, from manufactured and imported cultural appropriations to fine art in galleries and museums. The state’s creative Indigenous communities are sometimes lost in what is popularly featured as Native American Art. In this presentation, Diné jeweler Nanibaa Beck will highlight contemporary Native American Art, […]

Arizona Water Use from Prehistory to the Present with Jim Turner

Chandler Gilbert Community College - PAC Auditorium 2626 E Pecos Road, Chandler, Arizona

This presentation covers humankind’s water use and food supply interactions with Arizona’s ecology from Clovis culture hunter-gatherers to prehistoric irrigation canals, contemporary Hopi and Tohono O’odham dry farming, and present-day American farmers. We will examine how overhunting and climate change affected the wooly mammoth populations and the agriculture experiments that followed. From early attempts to […]

Arizona Snake Oil Salesmen, Scams, and Hoaxes with Christine Reid

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

Entrepreneurs offering assorted “get rich quick” schemes and “cure-alls” have visited Arizona since the early days. Benefitting from tales of abundant resources in the territory, limited law enforcement and communication, a scoundrel could create enticing promises of wealth and health without much external oversight. Newspapers often fanned the hysteria only to later denounce and expose […]

FREE

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

Viney Jones Library and Community Center 778 N Main Street, Florence, 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 […]

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

Pima County Public Library - Caviglia Arivaca Branch

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 […]

Rivers of Dreams: Songs and Stories of Arizona’s Waterways with Jay Cravath

Buckeye Public Library - Coyote Branch Library 21699 W Yuma Rd, Suite 116, Buckeye, AZ, United States

The Colorado, the Gila, the Salt, the Verde, the Hassayampa, the Santa Cruz: Arizona’s rivers were lush green ribbons of life flowing through a desert landscape. They became sustaining paths for indigenous traders and immigrants leaving wagon tracks and settlements. The Hohokam built vast canals from the Salt to direct irrigation water for crops. European […]

Hiking into the Past: The Sierra Ancha Cliff Dwellings with John Mack

Springerville Heritage Center 418 E. Main Stret, Springerville, AZ, United States

This presentation examines the remarkable living structures built by the people who first lived in the canyons of the Sierra Ancha wilderness during the early Middle Ages. The architectural dwellings reflect the culture and history of these people and help us understand their contributions to life in the Arizona desert. The presentation includes numerous photos […]

The Jews of Sosua: An Inspirational Story of Holocaust Survival with Dan Fellner

San Tan Valley Library - Bronze Room (Building A) 31505 N Schnepft Road, San Tan Valley, United States

It is one of the most uplifting – yet often forgotten – stories of Jewish survival during the Holocaust. In the early 1940s, the Dominican Republic was the only sovereign country to accept large numbers of Jewish refugees. About 750 German and Austrian Jews found a safe haven on an abandoned banana plantation in a […]

The Rise of Antisemitism and Nazi Propaganda with Bjorn Krondorfer

Chandler Gilbert Community College 2626 E Pecos Road, Chandler, AZ, United States

In June of 2021, Holocaust education became a required subject in Arizona public middle and high schools, making space for a discussion on the rise of antisemitic propaganda in 20th century Germany. This presentation will begin with a brief look at the early stages of antisemitic messaging in the 1890s, 09’s and WWI into the […]

Take a Hike! Explore, Enhance, and Experience Your Understanding of Arizona with Rodo Sofranac

North Valley Regional Library 40410 N Gavilan Peak Parkway, Anthem, AZ, United States

There are only eleven designated national scenic trails in the United States. Our Grand Canyon State has one of them—the Arizona National Scenic Trail! In this discussion, participants will have opportunities to: explore the history of the creation of Arizona’s greatest volunteer project; enhance their knowledge of Arizona’s diverse geography, animals, plants, and especially people—from […]

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