Our Blog
Reflecting on Native-led Humanities Activities Throughout Mni Sota
November 1, 2022 - By Jennifer Tonko
Háŋ! Boozhoo! Welcome to Native American Heritage Month! This period of recognition, reflection, and celebration is set aside by the U.S. Federal government to recognize the Indigenous peoples of this place, who governed themselves as citizens of many sovereign nations, long before European colonizers were intent upon living here.
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The Impacts of We Are Water
May 10, 2022 - By Troy Goodnough
I am excited about Minnesota Humanities Center leadership and for making the We Are Water MN (WAW) program available to partner-host sites across the state. I want to share a bit about our experience at UMN Morris. The We Are Water program was an important catalyst for our community to…
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Celebrating Women’s History Month: Remembering Women Democracy Educators
March 11, 2022 - By Marie Ström
Social movements don’t gain momentum automatically. People must be equipped for leadership and action. Too often this formative work is overshadowed by the headline-making events it makes possible.
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Third Way Civics: Educating Undergraduates for American Democracy
March 4, 2022 - By Trygve Throntveit
What does it mean to live in a democracy? This question confronts all peoples aspiring to a life of liberty, security, and dignity.
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Impossible to Remain Silent
June 3, 2021 - By Kevin Lindsey
Our nation, for far too long, has remained silent about open and notorious acts of racial violence experienced by African Americans. As a teenager reading, The Black Book edited by Middleton A. Harris and Toni Morrison, I became aware of the countless atrocities experienced by African Americans that were ignored…
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Black History Month
February 26, 2021 - By Mayor Melvin Carter
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter shares a special video message with his thoughts on thoughts on Black History Month.
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When I mention the name Carter G. Woodson
February 24, 2021 - By Brian D. Lozenski
In celebration of Black History Month, the Minnesota Humanities Center has asked some of our friends to write essays to share with you their thoughts on black history and culture, as well as on broad issues of racial and social justice. Like a good conversation with friends after a good…
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I Was Not a Slave . . .
February 22, 2021 - By Amelious N. Whyte, Jr., Ph.D.
“Slavery is not African and Black history, it’s an interruption of African and Black history. Let’s be clear, slavery and colonialism is European history!”
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Mancala Gameworlds and the Afrofuturist Orbit
February 19, 2021 - By John S. Wright, Professor Emeritus University of Minnesota
I managed to meet prize-winning Macalester College novelist/professor Marlon James last year following the publication of his epic fantasy saga "Black Leopard, Red Wolf." It's the first of a planned trilogy in the Afrofuturist orbit: the multidisciplinary movement to imagine or reimagine human technological, social, and political futures and pasts through black speculative cultural lenses.
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Reimagining Minnesota and America
February 17, 2021 - By Christopher P. Lehman
I am part of the first generation in my family to be born after the end of legal segregation by skin color. My parents and I were the second African American family to move into my hometown (in 1976), and the first such family preceded us by only three years.
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