St. Paul - History Fest
2025-08-14 08:30 - 15:30 (America/Chicago) | Minnesota History Center, 345 W Kellogg Blvd, St. Paul, MN, 55102, United States
Get ready for the 2025-2026 school year with a choice of educator-led sessions focusing on state, national and world history, as well as assessments, primary sources, and more. Connect with your history peers from around the state! This workshop has sessions for elementary, middle, and high school levels. The Minnesota Humanities Center will be tabling in the vendor area – stop by to view MHC’s educator resources and learn more about our work with educators.
Registration
History Fest is organized by the Minnesota History Center. Registration and payment through MNHS for the full conference are required to attend.
Registration Questions: Email Jessica McMahon at jessica.mcmahon@mnhs.org.
Register Now

New Ulm - Sketches of Minnesota
2025-08-14 17:00 - 20:30 | New Ulm Turner Hall, 102 S State St, New Ulm, MN, 56073, United States
“New Ulm: Come See What’s Brewing”
Join the Minnesota Humanities Center, Danger Boat Productions, and New Ulm Turner Hall for the Sketches of Minnesota civic improv comedy tour! These free events use laughter and comedy to celebrate Minnesota communities, promote dialogue, bridge divides, and help find ways to work constructively across differences in today’s political environment.
Beginning with a catered meal, these gatherings invite audience members to share what makes their town great, what they think people get wrong about it, what local divisions concern them, and what future they imagine. An improv comedy troupe listens in on the conversations, takes everything they heard from residents, and brings it to life on stage through entirely unscripted improv comedy theater.

5:00–6:00 PM: Doors open / Community hour
6:00–7:15 PM: Dinner
7:15–8:00 PM: Performances
8:00–8:30 PM: Talkback

Host Partner: New Ulm Turner Hall
The work of the Minnesota Humanities Center is to create a stronger Minnesota by increasing our understanding of the beauty, wisdom and stories of its people. Through partnerships, we facilitate the spaces, like Sketches of Minnesota, that seek to build connections and deepen understanding of ourselves and our communities in pursuit of a more just society.
Registration
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Register Now

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
Register Now

Rochester - Sketches of Minnesota
2025-08-28 17:00 - 20:30 | Rochester Art Center, 30 Civic Drive SE Ste 120, Rochester, MN, 55904, United States
Join the Minnesota Humanities Center, Danger Boat Productions, and Rochester Art Center for the Sketches of Minnesota civic improv comedy tour! These free events use laughter and comedy to celebrate Minnesota communities, promote dialogue, bridge divides, and help find ways to work constructively across differences in today’s political environment.
Beginning with a catered meal, these gatherings invite audience members to share what makes their town great, what they think people get wrong about it, what local divisions concern them, and what future they imagine. An improv comedy troupe listens in on the conversations, takes everything they heard from residents, and brings it to life on stage through entirely unscripted improv comedy theater.

5:00–6:00 PM: Doors open / Community hour
6:00–7:15 PM: Dinner
7:15–8:00 PM: Performances
8:00–8:30 PM: Talkback

Host Partner: Rochester Art Center
The work of the Minnesota Humanities Center is to create a stronger Minnesota by increasing our understanding of the beauty, wisdom and stories of its people. Through partnerships, we facilitate the spaces, like Sketches of Minnesota, that seek to build connections and deepen understanding of ourselves and our communities in pursuit of a more just society.
Registration
Sketches of Minnesota on August 28 is at capacity. Please join our waitlist. If a spot becomes available, we will contact you in the order received.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Join the Waitlist

Minnesota State Fair - Sketches of Minnesota
2025-08-29 11:30 - 12:30 | MPR Stage (Minnesota State Fair), Judson Ave and Nelson St, St. Paul, 55108-3003, United States
Join the Minnesota Humanities Center, Danger Boat Productions, and MPR for a special State Fair edition of Sketches of Minnesota civic improv comedy tour! These events use laughter and comedy to celebrate Minnesota communities, promote dialogue, bridge divides, and help find ways to work constructively across differences in today’s political environment. This performance will be held at the MPR Stage at the corner of Judson and Nelson.
Host Partner: MPR
The work of the Minnesota Humanities Center is to create a stronger Minnesota by increasing our understanding of the beauty, wisdom and stories of its people. Through partnerships, we facilitate the spaces, like Sketches of Minnesota, that seek to build connections and deepen understanding of ourselves and our communities in pursuit of a more just society.
This performance is free however paid admission to the Minnesota State Fair is required.

Minneapolis - Sketches of Minnesota
2025-09-06 11:00 - 14:30 | Center for Performing Arts, 3754 Pleasant Ave S, Minneapolis, 55409, United States
Join the Minnesota Humanities Center, Danger Boat Productions, and Kingfield Neighborhood Association for the Sketches of Minnesota civic improv comedy tour! These free events use laughter and comedy to celebrate Minnesota communities, promote dialogue, bridge divides, and help find ways to work constructively across differences in today’s political environment.
Beginning with a catered meal, these gatherings invite audience members to share what makes their town great, what they think people get wrong about it, what local divisions concern them, and what future they imagine. An improv comedy troupe listens in on the conversations, takes everything they heard from residents, and brings it to life on stage through entirely unscripted improv comedy theater.

11:00–12:00 PM: Doors open / Community hour
12:00–1:15 PM: Lunch
1:15–2:00 PM: Performances
2:00–2:30 PM: Talkback

Host Partner: Kingfield Neighborhood Association
The work of the Minnesota Humanities Center is to create a stronger Minnesota by increasing our understanding of the beauty, wisdom, and stories of its people. Through partnerships, we facilitate the spaces, like Sketches of Minnesota, that seek to build connections and deepen understanding of ourselves and our communities in pursuit of a more just society.
Registration
This event is free but registration is required.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org | MHC Cancellation Policy
Register Now

Online Content Session - Era One: Indigenous Histories
2025-09-09 16:00 - 17:30 | Online
Explore the histories of America’s first peoples before European contact and connect them to the lived experiences of Indigenous communities today. Led by Dr. Brenda Child and moderated by Dr. Katharine Gerbner, this session will provide deep historical context, source analysis, and thematic framing.

View Dr. Brenda Child’s Bio

Brenda J. Child is Northrop Professor of American Studies and former chair of the Departments of American Studies (2016-19) and the Department of American Indian Studies (2009-12).

She is the author of award-winning books of American Indian history, including Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940, (1998), which won the North American Indian Prose Award; Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community, (2012); Indian Subjects: Hemispheric Perspectives on the History of Indigenous Education (with Brian Klopotek, 2014). Her 2014 book My Grandfather’s Knocking Sticks: Ojibwe Family Life and Labor on the Reservation won the American Indian Book Award and the Best Book in Midwestern History. Child’s book for children, Bowwow Powwow (2018), won the American Indian Youth Literature Award for best picture book.

Child served as a member of the board of trustees of the National Museum of the American Indian-Smithsonian and was President (2017-2018) of the Native American & Indigenous Studies Association. She was born on the Red Lake Ojibwe Reservation in northern Minnesota where she served as a member of a committee writing a new constitution for the 12,000-member nation.

All Content Sessions will be conducted via Zoom and a Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)-hosted Canvas learning community. Each session’s lectures and discussions will be recorded and registered participants will receive access to the Canvas course with session recordings, curated resources, and collaborative planning tools.

High school U.S. History teachers and 5th and 7th grade educators are invited to participate in companion Pedagogy Sessions.

Registration

Content Sessions are open to all K–12 educators interested in historical content and source-based instruction. Educators are welcome to register for individual sessions that align with their interests and schedules. Join us for one or more sessions throughout the year.

This event is free but registration is required. Separate registration is required for each offering.

Registration Questions: Brittany.Rawson-Haeg@state.mn.us

Register Now

This offering is part of Navigating the U.S. History Eras: Content, Pedagogy, and Inquiry in the Classroom is a yearlong professional learning opportunity supporting implementation of Minnesota’s 2021 K–12 Academic Standards in Social Studies presented by MHC and MDE.

St. Paul - Minnesota Writers Off the Page: Mubanga Kalimamukwento
2025-09-10 18:30 - 20:30 | Black Garnet Books, 1319 University Ave W, St. Paul, 55104, United States
Join us for a special evening with Mubanga Kalimamukwento, author of “Obligations to the Wounded,” winner of this year’s Minnesota Book Award for novel/short story. Mubanga will be in conversation with Mona Susan Power, and along with readings from the book, their discussion will explore creative writing, the short story craft, family, culture, emigration, and more. Audience members will be invited to participate in a Q&A session, enjoy light refreshments, and have further informal conversation with the featured speakers. Copies of “Obligations to the Wounded” will be available for purchase, and the evening will finish with a book signing.
About the Speakers
Mubanga Kalimamukwento was born in Lusaka, Zambia. Her creative work has appeared or is forthcoming in adda, Aster(ix), Contemporary Verse 2, Kweli, Overland, The Ex-Puritan, Menelique, on Netflix, and elsewhere, and her editorial work can be found or is forthcoming in Shenandoah, the Water~Stone Review, Doek! Literary Magazine, and Safundi. She founded Ubwali Literary Magazine and co-founded the Idembeka Creative Writing Workshop. When she’s not writing or editing, Mubanga serves as a Mentor at the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. She is a PhD student in the Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota (Twin-Cities), where she is also an Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC) Scholar. Mubanga lives in Minnesota with her husband and their two children.
Mona Susan Power is the author of four books of fiction and has written short stories and essays that have appeared in publications and anthologies such as The Atlantic, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and Granta. She received a bachelor’s degree and JD from Harvard University and earned an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her first novel, “The Grass Dancer,” was published in 1994.
Mona is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna Dakhóta). She was born and raised in Chicago and now lives in Minneapolis.
This event is presented in partnership with Black Garnet Books, an independent bookstore in Saint Paul, MN that offers a curated selection of books and art by authors and illustrators of color in an environment that encourages learning, joyful interaction, and communal care for everyone who visits. This event is part of the Minnesota Writers Off the Page series, bringing the inspirational voices of Minnesota’s authors directly to readers.
Registration
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Register Now

St. Paul – Learning from Place: Bdote
2025-09-13 08:30 - 14:30 | Fort Snelling State Park, 101 Snelling Lake Road, St. Paul, MN, 55111, United States
Learning from Place: Bdote is an immersive experience that brings participants to sites of great significance to Dakota people in the Twin Cities. Participants will learn from Dakota community members through stories and histories that have often been left out of our state’s history. This experience is open to the public and is particularly beneficial for educators who want to include new perspectives in their history curriculum.
Learning from Place: Bdote will begin at Fort Snelling State Park (parking permit is required). After a break for “lunch on your own,” we will meet at Wicaḣapi (pronounced we-CHA-ha-pee; formerly Indian Mounds Regional Park), followed by a visit to the Oȟéyawahe/Pilot Knob Preservation Site (pronounced oh-HAY-ya-wa-hee). We will be outside the entire time. Participants need to provide their own transportation, lunch, snacks, and beverages.
There will be about 1.5 miles of walking throughout the day, sometimes on unpaved paths, as well as standing for periods of time. We will provide audio headsets for amplification of the tour guides. For specific inquiries about accessibility, please contact Eden Bart at eden@mnhum.org or 651-772-4261.
Your co-leads: Ramona Kitto Stately and Fern Naomi Renville
Ramona Kitto Stately is an enrolled member of the Santee Sioux Dakhóta Nation. She has a BA in Dakota Art and Culture and a MAE in Teacher Leadership. She is Project Director for We Are Still Here Minnesota and serves as chairperson of the Minnesota Indian Education Association. Ramona was the Recipient of the 2021 Ron McKinley Award from Minnesota Education Equity Partnership, currently serves as 2023’s Indigenous Elder in Residence for Carleton College, and McKnight Culture Bearers Award Recipient in March 2023.
Fern Naomi Renville is an artist, storyteller, enrolled citizen of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, and seventh-generation descendant of Chief Gabriel Renville. Born on the Lake Traverse Reservation in South Dakota, Fern currently lives and works in Saint Paul as an educator sharing music, story, and land-based learning to promote greater understanding and knowledge of Dakota people.
K-12 educators will receive 5 clock hours.
Registration
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org | MHC Cancellation Policy
Registration for this event has SOLD OUT.
Join the Waitlist
Want to know more about Learning from Place: Bdote?
Learn more about the Learning from Place: Bdote offering.

Learn More
Watch Learning from Place: Bdote, a video produced to celebrate 10 years of this powerful program.
Watch Now

Red Wing – Minnesota Children’s Book Festival
2025-09-13 11:00 - 16:00 | Anderson Center at Tower View, 163 Tower View Drive, Red Wing, MN, 55066, United States
The Anderson Center at Tower View is pleased to announce that the 26th annual Minnesota Children’s Book Festival will be held on Saturday, September 13, 2025 from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. This beloved event features presentations of new books by award-winning authors and illustrators writing for young readers through middle grade. Taking place at the Anderson Center’s beautiful, historic Tower View campus, the Children’s Book Festival is an ideal opportunity for families to connect, learn, and play.
Throughout the afternoon, each author or illustrator presents their work, reads from their book, and participates in a meet & greet and book signing booth. Taking place outdoors, the event also features hands-on activities that engage the mind, body, and imagination. With balloons, face painting, art-making, kid-friendly food trucks, and more, there’s something to delight the inner child in all of us.
This event is FREE and all ages are welcome!
The Minnesota Humanities Center will be tabling throughout the day — stop by to say hello, learn more about our book projects, and let us know you saw the event on our website to win a prize!
For a complete schedule of events, please visit the Anderson Center website.
Schedule of Events

Fort Snelling - Reconstruction Destructed Film & Community Conversation
2025-09-13 13:00 - 14:30 | Fort Snelling State Park, 101 Snelling Lake Road, St. Paul, MN, 55111, United States
To understand the challenges African Americans still face in being seen as full citizens in America today, it is important for us to understand the origin story of the path of formerly enslaved people becoming citizens. The past is not dead; it is not even really the past.
This film, created with our movie production partner OMG Studios, features Federal Minnesota District Court Judge Jerry Blackwell, author of Just Mercy and prominent civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, Macalester University Professor Duchess Harris, and a cameo by Minnesota’s First Lady of Civil Rights, Dr. Josie Johnson.
K-12 educators will receive 2 clock hours.
Registration
Registration Questions: ftsnelling@mnhs.org
Register Now

St. Paul - Headscarf Story Circle Gathering
2025-09-13 13:00 - 15:30 | Minnesota Humanities Event Center, 987 Ivy Avenue East, Saint Paul, MN, 55106, United States
The Minnesota Humanities Center (MHC) is excited to host Headscarf Story Circle – a series of offerings that recognize the strength and resiliency of women. Join us for our fourth offering as we gather together through the shared connection of the headscarf and its complexity. “Women Balancing Entrepreneurship and their own Wellness” is the theme. Well known community business advisor and consultant, Mariam Mohamed serves as the MHC partner and co-designer of this event. Guests are encouraged to wear a headscarf or head dress that is symbolic of anything from a fashion statement, cultural identity, health related, or memories, and beliefs.
Learn More About Headscarf Story Circles
Learn more about Headscarf Story Circles program in this video produced by the Minnesota Humanities Center.

Registration
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Register Now

Online Pedagogy Session – Foundations and Framework
2025-09-18 16:00 - 17:30 | Online
This opening pedagogy session will provide a brief overview of the new Minnesota K–12 Academic Standards in Social Studies, followed by an introduction to the structure and goals of the Navigating U.S. History Eras pedagogy sessions. Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) Social Studies Specialist Brittany Rawson-Haeg will guide participants in understanding how the series is designed to support inquiry-based, standards-aligned approaches to teaching U.S. History.
All Pedagogy Sessions will be conducted via Zoom. Educators who participate in all Pedagogy Sessions will leave the year with a complete U.S. History course aligned to the new standards.
Educators are invited to participate in companion Content Sessions.
Registration
Pedagogy Sessions are designed for high school U.S. History teachers and may also be relevant for 5th and 7th grade educators. Educators are welcome to register for individual sessions that align with their interests and schedules. Join us for one or more sessions throughout the year.
This event is free but registration is required. Separate registration is required for each offering.
Registration Questions: Brittany.Rawson-Haeg@state.mn.us
Register Now
This offering is part of Navigating the U.S. History Eras: Content, Pedagogy, and Inquiry in the Classroom is a yearlong professional learning opportunity supporting implementation of Minnesota’s 2021 K–12 Academic Standards in Social Studies presented by MHC and MDE.

Winona - Shorelines and Storylines: An Artist Gathering
2025-09-19 18:00 - 21:00 | Minnesota Marine Art Museum, 800 Riverview Drive, Winona, 55987, United States
Join us for a special evening of reflection, story, and shared warmth around the fire (weather permitting). This gathering offers an opportunity to connect with the artists of Once Upon A Shore through a special panel conversation moderated by guest exhibition curator, Heid E. Erdrich. Enjoy passed appetizers, and purchase drinks from Minnesota Marine Art Museum (MMAM)’s Water Bar Cafe & Provisions. The Minnesota Humanities Center is excited to partner with MMAM to highlight artists Gwen Nell Westerman, Tashia Hart, and Cole Redhorse Taylor who have contributed to the Native American Lives Series, books by and about Dakota and Ojibwe Minnesotans, for middle grade readers. Guests are also invited to purchase a variety of books created by exhibition artists, including the newest publications Ella Cara Deloria: Dakota Language Protector, Charles Albert Bender: National Baseball Hall of Fame Pitcher, Peggy Flanagan: Lieutenant Governor, and Carrie Cavender Schommer: Dakota Language Teacher, and have your copy signed and personalized.
Registration
Shorelines and Storylines is organized by the Minnesota Marine Art Museum. Registration through the Minnesota Marine Art Museum is required to attend.
Register Now

St. Paul - Learning from Place: Bdote for Educators
2025-09-20 08:30 - 15:30 | Minnesota Humanities Event Center, 987 Ivy Avenue East, Saint Paul, MN, 55106, United States
This special session, offered in partnership with Saint Paul Public Schools, is designed for 4th–7th grade teachers and district administrators. Space is limited.
Learning from Place: Bdote is an immersive, place-based learning experience that brings participants to sites of deep significance to Dakota people in the Twin Cities. Through stories shared by Dakota community members, educators will engage with histories and perspectives that are often absent from our state’s narrative.
Sites visited:

Fort Snelling State Park
Wicaḣapi (we-CHA-ha-pee; formerly Indian Mounds Regional Park)
Oȟéyawahe/Pilot Knob Preservation Site (oh-HAY-ya-wa-hee)

Coach bus transportation will be provided, beginning and ending at the Minnesota Humanities Center. Participants need to bring their own lunch, beverages, and snacks.
The day will take place entirely outdoors and includes approximately 1.5 miles of walking, sometimes on unpaved paths, and standing for extended periods. Audio headsets will be provided for clear listening. For questions about accessibility, please contact Eden Bart at eden@mnhum.org or 651-772-4261.
Your co-leads: Ramona Kitto Stately and Fern Naomi Renville
Ramona Kitto Stately is an enrolled member of the Santee Sioux Dakhóta Nation. She has a BA in Dakota Art and Culture and a MAE in Teacher Leadership. She is Project Director for We Are Still Here Minnesota and serves as chairperson of the Minnesota Indian Education Association. Ramona was the Recipient of the 2021 Ron McKinley Award from Minnesota Education Equity Partnership, currently serves as 2023’s Indigenous Elder in Residence for Carleton College, and McKnight Culture Bearers Award Recipient in March 2023.
Fern Naomi Renville is an artist, storyteller, enrolled citizen of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, and seventh-generation descendant of Chief Gabriel Renville. Born on the Lake Traverse Reservation in South Dakota, Fern currently lives and works in Saint Paul as an educator sharing music, story, and land-based learning to promote greater understanding and knowledge of Dakota people.
K-12 educators will receive 5 clock hours.
Registration
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org | MHC Cancellation Policy
Register Now

Rosemount - Sketches of Minnesota
2025-09-21 17:00 - 20:30 | Rosemount Steeple Center, 14375 S Robert Trail, Rosemount, MN, 55068, United States
Join the Minnesota Humanities Center, Danger Boat Productions, and City of Rosemount for the Sketches of Minnesota civic improv comedy tour! These free events use laughter and comedy to celebrate Minnesota communities, promote dialogue, bridge divides, and help find ways to work constructively across differences in today’s political environment.
Beginning with a catered meal, these gatherings invite audience members to share what makes their town great, what they think people get wrong about it, what local divisions concern them, and what future they imagine. An improv comedy troupe listens in on the conversations, takes everything they heard from residents, and brings it to life on stage through entirely unscripted improv comedy theater.

5:00–6:00 PM: Doors open / Community hour
6:00–7:15 PM: Dinner
7:15–8:00 PM: Performances
8:00–8:30 PM: Talkback

Host Partner: City of Rosemount
The work of the Minnesota Humanities Center is to create a stronger Minnesota by increasing our understanding of the beauty, wisdom and stories of its people. Through partnerships, we facilitate the spaces, like Sketches of Minnesota, that seek to build connections and deepen understanding of ourselves and our communities in pursuit of a more just society.
Registration
This event is free but registration is required.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Register Now

St. Paul - Learning from Place: 100 Years of Mexican American Culture on St. Paul’s West Side
2025-09-27 13:00 - 16:00 | Neighborhood House/The Wellstone Center, 179 Robie St E, St. Paul, 55107, United States
Discover the stories, history, and vibrant culture of St. Paul’s West Side—the heart of Minnesota’s Latino community. This immersive experience focuses on The Flats and the Latino Cultural District, a neighborhood shaped by generations of Mexican Americans, and now home to the future Minnesota Latino Museum.
Minnesota is home to more than 400,000 residents of Mexican and Latino heritage, two-thirds of whom trace their roots to Mexico. Since 2000, Minnesota’s Latino population has grown by 288%, contributing to the state’s cultural, economic, and civic life in countless ways. During this program, participants will learn directly from Latino community members and leaders, exploring the past, present, and future of this important neighborhood.
Offered in collaboration with the Minnesota Latino Museum.
Event Highlights

Historical overview of St. Paul’s West Side
Personal stories from West Side residents and business owners
Visit to a local business in the community
Visit to Alebrijes: Keepers of the Island exhibit on Raspberry Island (on view June 1–Oct 26)
Introduction to plans for the Minnesota Latino Museum
Sampling of Mexican cuisine

We will begin at Neighborhood House in the Wellstone Center, then travel together by bus to Raspberry Island and The Flats.
Registration
Registration for this event has CLOSED. Join the waitlist.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Join the Waitlist

Fergus Falls - Reconstruction Destructed Film & Community Conversation
2025-10-02 18:00 - 19:30 | Westridge Theater, 2001 West Lincoln Ave, Fergus Falls, 56537, United States
To understand the challenges African Americans still face in being seen as full citizens in America today, it is important for us to understand the origin story of the path of formerly enslaved people becoming citizens. The past is not dead; it is not even really the past.
This film, created with our movie production partner OMG Studios, features Federal Minnesota District Court Judge Jerry Blackwell, author of Just Mercy and prominent civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, Macalester University Professor Duchess Harris, and a cameo by Minnesota’s First Lady of Civil Rights, Dr. Josie Johnson.
K-12 educators will receive 2 clock hours.
Registration
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Register Now

Fergus Falls - Sketches of Minnesota
2025-10-03 17:00 - 20:30 | A Center for the Arts, 124 W Lincoln Ave, Fergus Falls, MN, 56537, United States
Join the Minnesota Humanities Center, Danger Boat Productions, and Otter Tail Lakes Country for the Sketches of Minnesota civic improv comedy tour! These free events use laughter and comedy to celebrate Minnesota communities, promote dialogue, bridge divides, and help find ways to work constructively across differences in today’s political environment.
Beginning with a catered meal, these gatherings invite audience members to share what makes their town great, what they think people get wrong about it, what local divisions concern them, and what future they imagine. An improv comedy troupe listens in on the conversations, takes everything they heard from residents, and brings it to life on stage through entirely unscripted improv comedy theater.

5:00–6:00 PM: Doors open / Community hour at The Gathering Place (202 W Lincoln Ave. Fergus Falls)
6:00–7:15 PM: Dinner Catered by Union Eatery
7:15–8:00 PM: Performance at A Center for the Arts (124 W Lincoln Ave. Fergus Falls)
8:00–8:30 PM: Talkback

The work of the Minnesota Humanities Center is to create a stronger Minnesota by increasing our understanding of the beauty, wisdom, and stories of its people. Through partnerships, we facilitate the spaces, like Sketches of Minnesota, that seek to build connections and deepen understanding of ourselves and our communities in pursuit of a more just society.
Host Partner: Fergus Falls Events Council
Registration
This event is free but registration is required.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Register Now

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
Registration for this event has SOLD OUT.
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Online Content Session - Era Two: Settler Colonialism and Atlantic Slavery
2025-10-07 16:00 - 17:30 | Online
Dive into the development of the institution of slavery and multiple perspectives on European colonization and early American society. Led by Dr. David Aiona Chang and Dr. Katharine Gerbner, this session will provide deep historical context, source analysis, and thematic framing.

View Dr. David Aiona Chang’s Bio

I am a Native Hawaiian historian of Indigenous people, colonialism, borders and migration in Hawaii and North America, focusing especially on the histories of Native American and Native Hawaiian people. My work moves between hyperlocal and global scales while centering the perspectives and experiences of Indigenous people and integrating close textual analysis, granular social history, theoretically informed analysis of race, gender, sexuality and nationalism, and Indigenous epistemologies and methodologies.

My second book, The World and All the Things Upon It: Native Hawaiian Geographies of Exploration was published in 2016 by the University of Minnesota Press. It speaks to a foundational imperative in Indigenous studies: the need to not just understand Indigenous people from their own perspectives, but to understand the world from their perspectives as well. It traces the ways that Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) explored the outside world and generated understandings of their place in it in the century and half after James Cook stumbled on their islands in 1778. In doing so, this book examines indigenous people as the active agents of global exploration, rather than the passive objects of that exploration, broadening our understanding of geographical knowledge production and power in the context of colonialism.

My first book, The Color of the Land, argues for the central place of struggles over the ownership of Native American lands in the history of racial and national construction by Creeks, African Americans, and whites in the Creek Nation and eastern Oklahoma. The Color of the Land was awarded the 2010 Theodore Saloutos Prize for best book in agricultural history from the Agricultural History Society and was granted Honorable Mention in the competition for the American Studies Association’s 2011 Lora Romero First Book Prize.

View Dr. Katharine Gerbner’s Bio

My research explores the religious dimensions of race, authority, and freedom in the early modern Atlantic world. My book, Christian Slavery: Conversion and Race in the Protestant Atlantic World (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), shows how debates between slave-owners, black Christians, and missionaries transformed the practice of Protestantism and the language of race in the early modern Atlantic World. I am currently at work on a few different projects. One, entitled “Constructing Religion, Defining Crime,” examines how some non-European religions—particularly those that were practiced under slavery—have been excluded from the category of religion and criminalized over the past three centuries. A related project investigates the religious and medical practices of enslaved Africans in the Caribbean, paying particular attention to obeah. I am interested in how Afro-Caribbean ideas about healing, prayer, and worship influenced the construction of European categories such as religion and medicine. I have also been working on an article about Missionaries and Maroons, which takes a micro-historical look at how and why maroon leaders sought to create alliances with Christian missionaries.

All Content Sessions will be conducted via Zoom and a Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)-hosted Canvas learning community. Each session’s lectures and discussions will be recorded and registered participants will receive access to the Canvas course with session recordings, curated resources, and collaborative planning tools.

High school U.S. History teachers and 5th and 7th grade educators are invited to participate in companion Pedagogy Sessions.

Registration
Content Sessions are open to all K–12 educators interested in historical content and source-based instruction. Educators are welcome to register for individual sessions that align with their interests and schedules. Join us for one or more sessions throughout the year.

This event is free but registration is required. Separate registration is required for each offering.

Registration Questions: Brittany.Rawson-Haeg@state.mn.us

Register Now

This offering is part of Navigating the U.S. History Eras: Content, Pedagogy, and Inquiry in the Classroom is a yearlong professional learning opportunity supporting implementation of Minnesota’s 2021 K–12 Academic Standards in Social Studies presented by MHC and MDE.

St. Paul & Online - Minnesota Writers Off the Page: Bronson Lemer
2025-10-09 18:30 - 20:30 | Minnesota Humanities Event Center, 987 Ivy Avenue East, Saint Paul, MN, 55106, United States
Join us for an engaging reading and discussion exploring the collection of contemplative essays that form “The Lonely Veteran’s Guide to Companionship” by Bronson Lemer. Bronson will be joined by poet and Veteran Jessi Atherton as they consider how the book chronicles a journey for a sense of self, community, and belonging, Bronson’s experiences of serving in the military, gaining awareness of his sexual orientation, and living abroad as a gay man. Following the discussion, audience members are invited to participate in a Q&A session, enjoy light refreshments, and have further informal conversation with the featured speakers. Copies of “The Lonely Veteran’s Guide to Companionship” will be available for purchase, and the evening will finish with a book signing. This is a hybrid event; participants can join in-person or online.
About the Speakers
Bronson Lemer served as a carpenter in the Army National Guard for six years, including deployments to Kosovo in 2000 and Iraq in 2003. Besides “The Lonely Veteran’s Guide to Companionship,” he is the author of “The Last Deployment: How a Gay, Hammer-Swinging Twentysomething Survived a Year in Iraq” (University of Wisconsin Press, 2011). In 2019, he was named a McKnight Writing Fellow. He lives in St. Paul and teaches writing at the University of Minnesota, Rochester.
Jessi Atherton is a mother, healer, Veteran, poet, lover of scrabble and charcuterie. Her writing touches on lived experiences and themes of motherhood, military, mental health, grief, healing, and humanity. Jessi is a Minnesota Humanities Center 2019 Veterans Voices awardee, a member and facilitator of Warrior Writers, a board member of the League of Minnesota Poets, and the Minnesota Assistant Counsel for Veterans. She is a 2023 Pat Tillman Scholar and US Army Veteran who served in Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Jessi’s work has been published throughout the years with Nodin Press, The Cuddy Foundation, Iliad Press, McGregor Publishing, the International Library of Poetry, and Middle West Press. Her first full collection, “The Time War Takes,” came out in April 2023 and received honorable mention in Senators Bob and Elizabeth Dole Inaugural Biennial Award for Distinguished Book in Veterans Studies, 2024 and made Community of Literary Magazines and Presses must read for Women’s History Month, 2024. Jessi is the mom to three amazing daughters, a mental health nurse, and works as a Psychiatric Mental Health nurse practitioner.
This event is part of the Minnesota Writers Off the Page series, bringing the inspirational voices of Minnesota’s authors directly to readers. This event is presented in partnership with Quatrefoil Library; based in Minneapolis, Quatrefoil Library collects, maintains, documents and circulates gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer materials and information in a safe and accessible space, in order to promote understanding, an appreciation of diversity and history, and the value of communities.
Registration
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Register Now

Duluth - Reconstruction Destructed Film & Community Conversation
2025-10-10 15:00 - 16:30 | Zeitgeist Center for Arts, 222 East Superior Street, Duluth, MN, 55802, United States

Edge of the Wilderness - Sketches of Minnesota
2025-10-11 17:00 - 20:30 | Edge Center for the Arts, 101 2nd Ave, Bigfork, MN, 56628, United States
Join the Minnesota Humanities Center, Danger Boat Productions, and Edge Center for the Arts for the Sketches of Minnesota civic improv comedy tour! These free events use laughter and comedy to celebrate Minnesota communities, promote dialogue, bridge divides, and help find ways to work constructively across differences in today’s political environment.
Beginning with a catered meal, these gatherings invite audience members to share what makes their town great, what they think people get wrong about it, what local divisions concern them, and what future they imagine. An improv comedy troupe listens in on the conversations, takes everything they heard from residents, and brings it to life on stage through entirely unscripted improv comedy theater.

5:00–6:00 PM: Doors open / Community hour
6:00–7:15 PM: Dinner
7:15–8:00 PM: Performances
8:00–8:30 PM: Talkback

Host Partner: Edge Center for the Arts
The work of the Minnesota Humanities Center is to create a stronger Minnesota by increasing our understanding of the beauty, wisdom and stories of its people. Through partnerships, we facilitate the spaces, like Sketches of Minnesota, that seek to build connections and deepen understanding of ourselves and our communities in pursuit of a more just society.
Registration
This event is free but registration is required.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Register Now

St. Paul - Minnesota Humanities Center at the 2025 MEA Conference
2025-10-16 07:30 - 14:30 | Saint Paul RiverCentre, 175 Kellogg Blvd, St. Paul, MN, 55102, United States
The Minnesota Humanities Center will be at the annual MEA Conference this year — stop by our table to connect with us and explore resources to bring more diverse voices and perspectives into your classroom. Enter our drawing for a chance to win books and say hello — we’d love to see you!
We’ll be highlighting:

Native American Lives book series – engaging biographies for young readers that center Native stories.
Navigating the U.S. History Eras: Content, Pedagogy, and Inquiry in the Classroom – a new online series supporting history educators with content-rich, inquiry-based approaches.
Reconstruction Destructed: The Most Misunderstood Period in American History – the latest film in the “Juneteenth Reckoning with Slavery” series.

We’ll also be sharing more about our broader work and resources for educators.
The MEA Conference is organized by Education Minnesota. It is the state’s largest professional development event for teachers, offering a full day of workshops, networking, and classroom resources.
Exhibits: 7:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
General session: 9:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m.
Workshops: 10:45 a.m.-4:15 p.m.
Registration
Free and open to Education Minnesota members and students only. Registration through Education Minnesota is required to attend.
Registration Questions: meaconference@edmn.org
Register Now

Fosston - Sketches of Minnesota
2025-10-18 17:00 - 20:30 | Firefly Center of Art and Wellbeing, 102 S Kaiser Ave, Fosston, 56542, United States
Join the Minnesota Humanities Center, Danger Boat Productions, and Firefly Center of Art and Wellbeing for the Sketches of Minnesota civic improv comedy tour! These free events use laughter and comedy to celebrate Minnesota communities, promote dialogue, bridge divides, and help find ways to work constructively across differences in today’s political environment.
Beginning with a catered meal, these gatherings invite audience members to share what makes their town great, what they think people get wrong about it, what local divisions concern them, and what future they imagine. An improv comedy troupe listens in on the conversations, takes everything they heard from residents, and brings it to life on stage through entirely unscripted improv comedy theater.

5:00–6:00 PM: Doors open / Community hour
6:00–7:15 PM: Dinner
7:15–8:00 PM: Performances
8:00–8:30 PM: Talkback

Host Partner: Firefly Center of Art and Wellbeing
The work of the Minnesota Humanities Center is to create a stronger Minnesota by increasing our understanding of the beauty, wisdom, and stories of its people. Through partnerships, we facilitate the spaces, like Sketches of Minnesota, that seek to build connections and deepen understanding of ourselves and our communities in pursuit of a more just society.
Registration
This event is free but registration is required.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Register Now

Edina - Reconstruction Destructed Film & Community Conversation
2025-10-21 18:30 - 20:30 | Edina Mann Theatre, 3911 W. 5th St., Edina, MN, 55424, United States
To understand the challenges African Americans still face in being seen as full citizens in America today, it is important for us to understand the origin story of the path of formerly enslaved people becoming citizens. The past is not dead; it is not even really the past.
This film, created with our movie production partner OMG Studios, features Federal Minnesota District Court Judge Jerry Blackwell, author of Just Mercy and prominent civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, Macalester University Professor Duchess Harris, and a cameo by Minnesota’s First Lady of Civil Rights, Dr. Josie Johnson.
K-12 educators will receive 2 clock hours.
Registration
This screening is part of the Twin Cities Film Festival (TCFF). Tickets must be purchased through TCFF.
Register Now

Online - Building Questioning Across the Social Studies Disciplines
2025-10-22 07:30 - 08:30 | https://www.mnhum.org/event/online-building-questioning-across-the-social-studies-disciplines/
Develop strategies for fostering strong questioning skills across the five strands of social studies. Examine a discipline-specific question and how it supports deeper inquiry and critical thinking. We will consider strengthening both teacher questioning and supports for developing student questioning in the inquiry process, as well.
The Minnesota Department of Education in partnership with the Minnesota Humanities Center will host virtual and in-person sessions to support planning for and implementation of the 2021 K-12 Academic Standards in Social Studies monthly during the 2025-26 school year. These monthly sessions are open to anyone with building or district-level responsibilities for curriculum planning and development in all social studies content areas, including curriculum directors, department leads, and teachers. Pre-registration is required for in-person sessions.
Virtual sessions will have content similar to in-person sessions, and whenever possible will feature the same speakers.
In-person sessions will be an hour longer than virtual sessions and will allow time for supported collaborative work and networking.
While districts are encouraged to have a representative at each monthly session, either in-person or virtual, participants do not need to commit to attending all nine sessions. Participants are also welcome to attend either session type throughout the year, as is best suited to their needs and schedule.
K-12 educators will receive 1 clock hour.
Registration
Registration Questions: brittany.rawson-haeg@state.mn.us
Register Now

Minneapolis - Building Questioning Across the Social Studies Disciplines
2025-10-23 09:00 - 11:00 | Minnesota Department of Education, 400 NE Stinson Blvd, Minneapolis, MN, 55413, United States
Develop strategies for fostering strong questioning skills across the five strands of social studies. Examine a discipline-specific question and how it supports deeper inquiry and critical thinking. We will consider strengthening both teacher questioning and supports for developing student questioning in the inquiry process, as well.
The Minnesota Department of Education in partnership with the Minnesota Humanities Center will host virtual and in-person sessions to support planning for and implementation of the 2021 K-12 Academic Standards in Social Studies monthly during the 2025-26 school year. These monthly sessions are open to anyone with building or district-level responsibilities for curriculum planning and development in all social studies content areas, including curriculum directors, department leads, and teachers. Pre-registration is required for in-person sessions.
Virtual sessions will have content similar to in-person sessions, and whenever possible will feature the same speakers.
In-person sessions will be an hour longer than virtual sessions and will allow time for supported collaborative work and networking.
While districts are encouraged to have a representative at each monthly session, either in-person or virtual, participants do not need to commit to attending all nine sessions. Participants are also welcome to attend either session type throughout the year, as is best suited to their needs and schedule.
K-12 educators will receive 2 clock hours.
Registration
Registration Questions: brittany.rawson-haeg@state.mn.us
Register Now

St. Paul – Fall Metro Indian Education Gathering
2025-10-23 11:00 - 13:30 | Minnesota Humanities Event Center, 987 Ivy Avenue East, Saint Paul, MN, 55106, United States
Join us for the Fall Metro Indian Education Gathering hosted at the Minnesota Humanities Center. Anyone connected to American Indian Education and/or American Indian students are welcome to attend. Lunch will be served potluck style. A main dish will be provided. Please register so we can plan accordingly and bring a side dish or dessert to share!
The agenda will include:

Byron Ninham: Community Outreach Miin – Program Updates
MDE Indian Education – Updates from Annie Huberty
TNEC Update to include PD for 2025-25 – Beth Tepper
Compass/Equitable Access AI Specialist – Jodie Sheets
Free Course Offerings
Tony Drews/Tiwahe Foundation/American Indian Family Empowerment program/youth scholarships
ISD622 American Indian Education new curriculum website

If you have questions about the session and agenda, please contact Robin Nelson at rnelson4@isd622.org.
About the Metro Indian Education Gathering
The Metro Indian Education Gathering is a group of urban American Indian Educators that come together on a regular basis, 2-3 times a year to share ideas and discuss challenges while celebrating successes. We create a space for networking and access to people who can help navigate the rules and regulations governing American Indian Education programs. This group has been meeting since January 2013.
Registration
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
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