Minnesota Humanities Center

St. Paul – Feeding Our Souls: The Essence of Juneteenth Joy with Dr. Jessica B. Harris
2025-06-18 17:15 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Minnesota History Center, 345 W Kellogg Blvd, St. Paul, MN, 55102, United States
Culinary historian, author of 15 books, including the New York Times bestseller High on the Hog, winner of two NAACP Image Awards, a Peabody Award, and James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement award winner Dr. Jessica B. Harris will be in conversation with MHC CEO Kevin Lindsey about the role food plays in shaping our identities and understandings of cultural heritage.

After the program, guests will be invited to mingle and taste samples of several local chefs’ signature dishes.

Featured Chefs

Chef Lutunji Abram – Lutunji’s Palate
Chef Jamal Hashi – Lux Catering
Chef James Johnson – Cooks of Hope
Chef Mateo Mackbee – Krewe Restaurant
Chef Rayo Odedina – Jokky Catering Services
Chef Robert Taylor – Dreamland Culinary Heritage

American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation services will be available at this event.

Registration
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org

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Thank you to our sponsors!

Maplewood - Feeding Our Soul: The Essence of Asian Joy
2025-08-22 17:30 - 20:00 | Pan Asian Center, 3001 White Bear Ave, Maplewood, 55109, United States
As part of our Feeding Our Souls: The Essence of Cultural Joy series, the Minnesota Humanities Center invites you to an engaging Night Market Pop-Up experience celebrating the stories, sounds, and street foods that bring communities and neighborhoods together.
Night markets can be traced back to China, where they provided locals with quick meals and joyful entertainment after a long day’s work, similar to a cultural “happy hour.” From Asia to the Americas, these nocturnal bazaars offer goods, stories, traditions, and flavors deeply rooted in local identity.
Join us for a curated program featuring Asian food, music, live performance, and laughter featuring Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay and Eve Vang. You’ll also hear personal reflections from a beloved food truck chef.
Guests will have the opportunity to write and share short reflections or spoken word inspired by their favorite street food memories, with a chance to win prizes provided by our venue host, Pan Asian Center.
Come hungry, food truck meals and beverages will be available for purchase.
Come for the food, stay for the laughter and feed your soul.
5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. – Food Trucks Open
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. – Performances and Open Mic
Registration
So that we can deliver the best event experience, registration is encouraged.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
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Minneapolis – Feeding Our Souls the Essence of Unity
2025-10-06 18:00 - 20:30 | Lynette, 3753 42nd Ave S, Minneapolis, MN, 55406, United States
Feeding Our Souls the Essence of Unity explores the themes of connecting and joy through food and community. Our host and feature partner is BIPOC Foodways Alliance (BFA) – a nonprofit organization that seeks to break down barriers between cultural communities using food as a tool. Through its program Immigrant Kitchen, BFA provides a platform for women of color and women of lived immigration and refugee experience to tell their stories through the lens of home cooking. They seek to uplift, share, and archive important cultural legacy stories and histories that mainstream food media may have a tendency to overlook or ignore. The evening’s host is Mecca Bos, Founder of BIPOC Foodways Alliance. Featured “home cook” chefs are Vivian Mims, Phonn Sann, Safa Abualreesh, and Christina Arias Acosta.
Mecca Bos is a Culinary Storyteller who has been working as a food writer and chef for more than 20 years. She worked as a staff writer for Insight News, food editor of the former publications Metro Magazine and City Pages, and has written for many local and national publications including Taste, Civil Eats, and The New York Times. She is a regular contributor to Minnesota Public Radio and is about to embark on a book that will be published by the University of Minnesota Press, Finding Our Tribe, exploring the biracial experience in America through the lens of food. She has worked as a chef, sous chef, and cook in many professional kitchens from casual to fine, including dinners at Platform by the James Beard Foundation in New York City.
Vivian Mims is a lifelong Rondo Community resident who learned to cook from her 94-year-old matriarch Juanell Mims. Vivian remembers extended, fried chicken dinners served by her mother every single Sunday. Vivian picked up the family tradition from her mother and is a skilled Soul Food cook. Vivian and her brother Davvie are currently working on a sprawling teleplay script that follows the trajectory of their family since they arrived in St. Paul during The Great Migration.
Phonn Sann is a Cambodian refugee who survived starvation in Thai Refugee camps during Cambodia’s devastating and brutal Civil War. She and her husband, Soreth Phann, were forced into an arranged marriage in that camp, and went on to have a large family who feel their family’s love through her mother’s cooking prowess. Phonn cooks Cambodian cuisine like a pro and keeps her family connected to their culture through this practice.
Safa Abulareesh moved to Minneapolis more than 30 years ago to join her husband who had business here. Like many Palestinians, she was born in Jordan after her grandparents were forced out of their home in Palestine during the 1948 “Nakba,” the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during and after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Like many of those Palestinians, Safa is still deeply rooted to her culture and cooks her traditional food as both a way to stay tethered to that culture, as well as an act of resistance.
Christina Arias Acosta is from Mexico City and was Sean Sherman’s first hire at the Indigenous Food Lab in Minneapolis. She helps with everything, including making staff meals for the entire team. She learned to cook from her grandparents and plans to make a green mole that her grandmother learned from her grandmother. Sean says Christina is the “resident elder” at IFL. Christina’s daughter and granddaughter also work for the organization, carrying on the tradition of mothers learning to cook from their mothers.
Registration
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Minneapolis - Feeding Our Souls: The Essence of Hotdish Wisdom
2025-12-08 11:00 - 13:30 | Sabathani Community Center, 310 E 38th St, Minneapolis, MN, 55409, United States
Feeding Our Souls the Essence of “Hotdish Wisdom” explores the themes of connecting and joy through food and community. Our partners for this unique intergeneration experience will feature BIPOC Foodways Alliance (BFA), the Minneapolis Public Schools, and the Sabathani Community Center. BFA will feature five “home cooks” who will tell their stories through the lens of home cooking. Through story circles, the event is aimed to uplift and share important cultural legacy stories and histories as elders and students enjoy five distinguished renditions of the comfort food – “hotdish.”
Registration
Registration is limited to senior citizens for this event.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
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St. Paul - Feeding Our Souls: The Essence of Food and Musical Joy
2026-02-06 18:00 - 20:00 | Progressive Baptist Church, 1505 Burns Ave E, St. Paul, MN, 55106, United States
Feeding Our Souls: The Essence of Joy events explore the themes of connecting through foods which have always played a pivotal role in shaping our identities and communities. Recipes and flavors bind families, showcase heritage, and promote understanding. Our series delves into this unique intersection of food and culture, inviting participants to explore the rich narratives behind every dish.
The Feeding Our Souls: The Essence of Food and Musical Joy evening will examine the connections and relationship of food and music. Our partners for this unique integration of the arts will feature Chef James Johnson, Founder of Cooks of Hope, and members of the Vocal Essence Witness Choral Ensemble, G. Phillip Schoultz Director. Through the richness of Gullah-Geechie, Low Country cuisine, traditional spirituals, Gullah music, and story circle dialogues, the event is aimed to uplift and share important cultural legacy stories and histories.
Registration
This event is free, however registration is required.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
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St. Paul - Feeding Our Souls: The Essence of Juneteenth Joy
2026-06-23 17:30 - 20:30 | St. Paul College, 235 Marshall Ave, St. Paul, 55102, United States
Upon hearing the news of the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans celebrated by singing songs of worship, dancing, and eating good food. In commemoration, MHC invites you to Jubilee where you will enjoy Spirituals and music from Vocal Essence under the direction of G. Phillip Shoultz, hear stories about the wonderful intersection of food and music, and be treated to delicious dishes and treats from prominent local Black chefs:

Chef Lutunji Abram
Chef Jamal Hashi
Chef James “Jay” Johnson
Chef Mateo Mackbee
Chef Motunrayo “Rayo” Odedina
Chef Robert Taylor

Since 2022, MHC has offered a series of Juneteenth events to examine African American narratives, history, and experience in fulfilling the ideals articulated within the Declaration of Independence.

Funders and Supporters
