St. Paul - Feeding Our Souls: The Essence of Latine Joy
2024-10-22 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Minnesota Humanities Event Center, 987 Ivy Avenue East, Saint Paul, MN, 55106, United States
Savory entrees and delectable desserts will again fill the tables at the Minnesota Humanities Center (MHC) as we commemorate Latine Cultural Heritage Month through food and the beloved stories behind them that bring community joy. Cuisine and entertainment will be showcased by some of the Twin Cities’ finest chefs and musicians.
Featured Chef: Manuel Gonzalez
Manuel Gonzalez is from Mexico City. He moved to the United States In 1982, after finishing culinary school in Mexico. Having always dreamed of opening his own business, he applied and was chosen as one of the first restaurants to be part of the Latine Business Development Project, opening in their first restaurant in 1999. He invited his sister Victoria, to participate in this adventure, because she has a background in hospitality management and business consulting experience. Together they run Manny’s Tortas inside the Midtown Global Market and a booth in the food building at the Minnesota State Fair. Manny is frequently a guest speaker for economic development programs, and a guest chef at locations such as Macy’s Department Store and Midtown Global Market. He also teaches cooking classes for different events.
Featured Musician: Jesus Guzman
Born in Vargas, Venezuela, Jesus began to study violin at the age of 7 in the National Network of Youth and Children Orchestras of Venezuela, also known as El Sistema. He has studied in the Latin American Violin Academy in Caracas with the violin master, Francisco Del Castillo. In addition, Jesus has participated in masterclasses with violin virtuosos, Guy Braunstein, Thibault Vieux, and Alexis Cardenas. Jesus has an extensive performing career, notably the five years he spent as member of 1st Violin of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela under conductors Gustavo Dudamel and Diego Matheuz. In 2022 He won an award in the Z-film Festival in Minneapolis, MN, for his composition and video edition as a best original song of “Añoranza” Lastly, He is part of the staff of teachers for GTCYS (Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies) working as a violin teacher in the Harmony program in Riverview West School of Excellence – St. Paul (MN), and teaching around the Twin cities.
Program Emcee: Melissa Gonzalez Vazquez
Melissa Gonzalez Vazquez is Communications and Community Engagement Manager at LatinoLEAD. Drawing from her firsthand encounters with the transformative impact of Latine-focused nonprofits, Melissa is dedicated to enhancing our community’s access, visibility, and success through purposeful programming, cross-sector partnerships, impactful narratives, and cross-cultural coalition building efforts. She believes that Minnesota is an excellent hub to foster Latine leadership infrastructure and strategies. She is dedicated to connecting emerging vanguards across industries and highlighting our Latine community’s assets. Her background in congressional campaign communications and designing nationwide Latine leadership programming reinforced her passion for aligning Latine efforts and amplifying its collective influence through narrative writing, digital marketing and graphic design.
Registration
Registration is required for this free event.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
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St. Paul - Feeding Our Souls: Essence of Indigenous Joy
2024-12-16 18:00 - 20:00 | Minnesota Humanities Event Center, 987 Ivy Avenue East, Saint Paul, MN, 55106, United States
Splendid traditional entrees and desserts evolve at the Minnesota Humanities Center as we commemorate Indigenous Cultural Heritage Month through food and the beloved stories behind them that bring community joy. Cuisine and authentic presentations are showcased by one of the Twin Cities’ finest chefs, food historian, and musicians.
Featured Chef
Brian Yazzie aka Yazzie the Chef (Diné/Navajo) is from Dennehotso, Arizona and based out of Saint Paul, MN. Chef Yazzie has an Associate in Applied Science (AAS) in Culinary Arts from Saint Paul College 2016. He is a delegate of Slow Food Turtle Island Association, and a team member at I-Collective: a collective of cooks, chefs, seed keepers, farmers, foragers, and scholars, focused on bringing awareness to the cultural appropriations of indigenous foods of the Americas. Chef Yazzie and his Fiancée, Danielle Polk (Hoonmana Polk) are the Founders/Owners of Intertribal Foodways, a culinary mission specifically working with and for the betterment of tribal communities, wellness and health through Indigenous foods. They travel internationally and are available for catering, private dinners, pop up dinners, chef demos & cooking classes, collaborations, and presentations on indigenous food sovereignty.
Featured Emcee
Deanna StandingCloud, a citizen of the Red Lake Nation of Anishinaabe, Deanna collaborates with fellow Native comedians, including Trish Cook’s all-female group, ACE BAE Comedy. She’s performed comedy since 2022. She is also learning about traditional healing modalities for her new business, Ziigwan Indigenous Wellness. Deanna is a playwright, artist, and powwow emcee who enjoys spending time with her children, her dog Benny, cooking, taking nature walks, and creative activities.
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St. Paul – Feeding Our Souls: The Essence of Juneteenth Joy with Dr. Jessica B. Harris
2025-06-18 17:15 - 20:00 | 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.
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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
