Have you checked out your state humanities council’s event calendar lately? You may be surprised at the range of virtual options, whether you’re looking for a smart lecture to while away a quiet afternoon or an engaging event to share with your patrons on social media.
Below is a selection of virtual events just from the week of August 24, 2020. Find your state humanities council here.
Because at the end of a long summer full of canceled travel plans, many of us could use a little escape — even if it is into a videoconference. (Note: The information below was accurate as of publication. Please be sure to check registration details and time zones.)
Frances Robb: Dating Family and Institutional Photos
From the Alabama Humanities Foundation
Monday, August 24
11 a.m. ET
This program will present the basics of dating family and institutional photographs — the first step in identifying the people, places, events and things in historic photographs. Robb, the author of “Shot in Alabama: A History of Photography 1839-1941 and a List of Photographers,” gives workshops in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee and is passionate about old photos. Bring your family photography to share with her.
Belva Lockwood for President: A Living History Performance with Anne Barrett
From Mass Humanities / Reading Public Library
Monday, August 24
1 p.m. ET
It’s 1884, and Belva Lockwood is on the campaign trail! Attend her fiery campaign speech to hear her plans for equality and justice for all. She’ll recollect her humble beginnings and describe her fight to become the first woman admitted to the Supreme Court Bar. Includes renditions of popular suffrage songs. Step Back to Election 1884 with historian and performer Anne Barrett.
African American Foodways Cooking Demonstration with Dontavius Williams
Tuesday, August 25
7 p.m. ET
From Virginia Humanities / Stratford Hall
Stratford Hall’s 1738 kitchen will become center stage with historical interpreter and chef Dontavius Williams. Cooking traditional African American dishes, Williams will share stories of plantation kitchen labor and the influence of 18th-century meals on current American cuisine.
From Wyoming Humanities / Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research
Tuesday, August 25
5:30 p.m. MT
Join the Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research for a Silent Book Club! It’s pretty simple — show up on Zoom with whatever book you want, and then for one hour, we read. For the first 10 minutes or so, we share on screen or via chat whatever book we brought. Then, for 40 minutes, all the microphones go off, and we read together. Then, for the last 10 minutes or so, if people wish, they can read aloud to the group a few interesting sentences from their books.
From Florida Humanities
Wednesday, August 26
6 p.m. ET
No longer the peaceful old-age spa, Miami in the early ‘80s had the highest murder rate in the country and was the center of drug cartels populated by immigrants from Latin America’s lowest strata. But on September 28, 1984, Miami Vice debuted on national television and reinvented the city in popular imagination. Author Pedro Medina Leon discusses the popular mythology of the city versus the reality during this period.
How Can We Breathe: The Mamas
From Minnesota Humanities Center / Sweet Potato Comfort Pie®
Thursday, August 27
5:30 pm CT
In the first virtual community circle of the Minnesota Humanities Center’s How Can We Breathe series, we will learn from three Mamas who have tragically lost their children to police killings and other forms of violence. Now working to advocate and organize for change, Princess Haley, Marilyn Hill and Mary Johnson-Roy will discuss how protest and uprising can serve as a catalyst to drive systemic change in our society.
Participants are called to join this virtual space to learn, heal, understand and share through this experience. This conversation centered on the African American experience will identify strategies and resources that advocates and allies for a racially just society can use to ensure that African Americans are fully empowered within our democracy.
Rethinking Redlining & Segregation: Prologue to the COVID-19 Crisis
From Indiana Humanities / Indiana Historical Society
Thursday, August 27
7 p.m. ET
For over 100 years, legalized racial segregation, widely seen through redlining, Jim Crow laws and economic disparities, decided who got what in America. Over the last century, racial apartheid went through several evolutions and, some argue, especially in light to present-day health disparities around COVID-19, that it never quite disappeared. This talk explores the subtle and dynamic ways in which segregated communities, institutions, and consumer spaces transformed after World War II, and not always for the better, setting the stage for today’s forms of racism. Prof. N. D. B. Connolly will share primary documents and stories that trouble our typical good vs. evil understanding of apartheid.
Book Discussion: "Exit West" by Mohsin Hamid
From Vermont Humanities
Friday, August 28
4:30 p.m. ET
Part of the Border Crossing series. A book of short stories, a memoir and two novels bring us to a present-day consideration of migration, immigration and refuge. Their love and a sense of their past as they walk through fantastical doors to new lands.
Funding for this article series has been provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act economic stabilization plan.
