Central MN Community Empowerment Organization will revitalize the use of cultural and artistic expressions for the Somali youth of Minnesota to preserve and display their cultural heritage. CMCEO plans to promote patriotism and citizenship through cultural heritage where artists are trained to compose Somali creative arts and music. This will enable youth to learn their cultural heritage and creativity in an engaging environment.
IX and TQH will collaborate to support the immigrant members of IX who are also part of the queer community. We want to focus on this intersection because IX has a handful of members who embrace this identity and struggle for recognition within their Latinx community. IX will work with TQH to support the intersectional identities of IX members through their claiming of their narratives. This will be done at a December storytelling event of TQH, through IX members (and adding a cross-cultural element) as well as queer Hmong and Somali individuals sharing their stories publicly.
The Children's Discovery Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota will increase access and deepen engagement with their effectively proven School Service Program. The museum will take down the economic barriers and increase enrollment. This grant will fund more educators and facilitators, curriculum development, scholarship aid, transportation assistance and art/teaching supplies.
Every culture engineers. We may use different words and materials, but we all share a need to design solutions to everyday problems. Through the We Are All Engineers project, The Works Museum will leverage the organization’s expertise in elementary engineering education and the cultural knowledge of community partners to co-create and deliver new elementary education programs that align with the cultural benchmarks in the Minnesota State Science Standards introduced in June 2019.
The Minnesota Urban Debate League is an independent program of Augsburg University. We serve over 1,200 students and provide academic debate programming to 40+ Twin Cities high school and middle schools. Two of our programs are designed to specifically address the needs of immigrant communities in Minnesota: The Spanish Debate League and the East African Debate Initiative. Both programs build students’ positive cultural identity while sharpening their academic skills.
The DIAL will collaborate with Hmong artist Tou SaiKo Lee to develop “Ntiajteb Koomtes” (“Unified Worldwide” in English) – a Hmong language program based on Hmong traditional music infused with poetry and hip hop. Project activities include piloting the curriculum, developing media, and evaluating and revising the curriculum through feedback from students, teachers and linguists.
Our project will expand our successful storytelling program to 1) offer more pathways for community engagement with Southeast Asian diaspora stories and cultural arts; 2) increase the number of people we are able to engage through our storytelling program; 3) increase public dialog and engagement with Southeast Asian stories and cultural arts. Our work will bring Southeast Asian diaspora communities together to share cultural arts and stories and to increase accessibility of community stories.
The Minnesota State Council on Disability (“MSCOD”) seeks to preserve and raise awareness of Minnesota’s disability culture in sync with the 25th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) through a theatrical production, public opinion survey and research, and an ADA celebration/training conference. Activities will also highlight the low employment rate of people with disabilities. Most of the public activities will occur in the second year of the grant.
The Chicano Latino Affairs Council in collaboration with the Minnesota Humanities Center will use funding to address the education challenges and opportunities faced by Latino students. The central theme and core value is “culture and language matter,” that culture and language is an asset and not a liability. A research project will focus on identifying specific strengths in Latino culture that improve education engagement.
Our project aims to develop free online resources that teach Hmong language and culture to the public. First, printable literacy and cultural decks – for example, flashcards of the Hmong alphabet, or an overview of a prevalent Hmong tradition – available for download on our website. Our second resource include an interactive web app that teaches introductory Hmong language. Users gain literacy skills of consonants, vowels, and grammar, and can also engage in lessons that teach topics such as common greetings, introductions, survival phrases, pronouns, and more.
The 20-Year Curseis a multi-media live performance and documentary film project created, written, and performed by Naomi Ko. It explores the stories surrounding Naomi and the Ko Family curse, and the Korean American community in Minnesota. This grant will support the staging of the live performances and the making of the documentary.
The Harvest is a documentary video that provides a look into the lives of families that come together each year to harvest sugar beets. The piece will chronicle diverse stories from migrant workers to thos who have now lived in the region for more than 5 generations. Five Latinx filmmakers living in Crookston MN, will document the sugar beet harvest, not from a land owner's point of view, but from the view of people who have provided the labor force for more than five generations.
Gaohong is a Pipa player, a teacher at Carleton College, Chinese. Recently, the mayor of St. Paul named April 3rd, 2022 Gaohong Day. I was touched by Gaohong's story: the hardship, the joy, the courage to bridge the gaps. I put together this interactive writing process with Gaohong, educators and students in Chinese immersion schools for a picture book. I wish this project could answer: Who are we in the history and in the current curriculum? Who do we want to be in the future?
The Step Into Your Light Project will work with non-English speaking Hmong women elders to give them an opportunity to explore cultural dances they wouldn't have access to nor find a reason to try something new. The goal of this project is to help Hmong women step out of their comfort zones to step into the spotlight. This experience will be documented, narrated, and translated to be published on YouTube to encourage all women to not be afraid of their own light.
LatinoLEAD's new Avanzando Liderazgo Program (ALP) uses a culturally specific interdisciplinary approach to prepare emerging and established Latinx leaders to take on influential positions across sectors so they can advance equity for our community. Using a carefully crafted curriculum, we celebrate and teach the culture and heritage of Minnesota's many Latinx communities. This asset-based, multi-ethnic approach allows leaders to build skills while discovering what it means to be Minnesotanos.
The Dakhóta Iápi Okhódakichiye will conduct a series of interviews with first language speakers of the Dakhóta language to understand the systematic absence of Minnesota's first language through a Dakhóta lens. The project has three objectives: 1) Understand the systematic absence of the Dakhóta language from Minnesota, 2) Understand language loss and revitalization from a Dakhóta perspective, and 3) Create Dakhóta language curriculum and archive (bilingual) from the transcripts.
The Arts and Justice Pathways Initiative seeks to foster creative and restorative solutions for justice- impacted communities in Minnesota. Through arts, wellness, and empowerment programs, this initiative will cultivate support, healing, and new opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals, addressing both community restoration and personal growth.
Funny Asian Women Kollective (FAWK) uses comedy to combat the dehumanization of Asian women. This project includes: 1) a tour performing throughout the state, particularly to rural communities with large Asian American populations; 2) provide workshop opportunities to equip communities with the tools to create their own comedic material; 3) produce two super shows in Minneapolis and Saint Paul (700+ audience); 4) allow digital production of five short films and distribution.
Wonderlust Productions will use stories gathered from people who live and work behind the scenes in downtown Saint Paul to create short, place-based, audio plays, peeling back the curtain on who and what really makes our city tick. Audiences will be invited to take a listening tour of the city by following an online map and QR codes displayed around town.
The Link will provide culturally specific programming to 12-15 youth that will participate in a pilot expansion of the We Will Breathe program (incorporating a new Black History month initiative). We Will Breathe is a youth-led Racial Justice and Healing Initiative, where youth come together as a collective to develop a deeper understanding of themselves, their cultures, and their identities.
This project will create three videos (45-60 minutes each), produced in Oromo with English subtitles and voice over), to document the challenges and triumphs of first-generation immigrants, preserve heritage, affirm cultural identity, and introduce Minnesotans the Oromo community.
This project is a digital storytelling project dedicated to bonding communities and cultures through telling elders' stories. The project is embedded in the idea that our elders are waterers - carrying history and knowledge that strengthens a community's identity, and that through the sharing of their stories, we can understand and strengthen communities across generations and geographic location. The project will involve 30 persons from Indigenous, Hmong, Latinx and Somali cultures located across the state.
Unified Worldwide is a Hmong language Hip Hop project which includes songs accompanied by a curriculum. This is a journey to relearn Hmong language through writing lyrics. A strong focus of songs on this album are "message" and "content" to address social issues, reflect personal stories and preserve cultural identity. This album incorporates collaborations with Hmong elders who are masters of traditional instruments such as rab ncas (mouth harp), lub raj (flute) and xim xaus (violin).
Saint Cloud is deeply divided by race and radicalized violence. The Saint Cloud library is perceived as the only true commons space where all people can feel welcomed and safe. This incident has brought up trauma amongst staff and the community, especially people of Somali and eastern African heritage. This project includes partnering with the Rainbow Wellness Collective, to offer five, 2-hour art making sessions, focused on creative writing, painting, collage-making, lyrical dancing, and drumming circles, at the library.
With roughly 70,000 residents, Minnesota is home to the largest Hmong population in the United States. The top spinning game of Tuj Lub (pronounced - too loo) has its roots in Southeast Asia and holds cultural significance to the Hmong community. Formal Tuj Lub courts, constructed near a multi-shelter picnic area at Keller Regional Park, seek
We will prepare resource kits for elementary students which will introduce the traditional arts and crafts of Turkey, as situated within the broader historical and geographical context. Because the kits will meet the guidelines of MN Academic Standards, they can be used in Social Studies and Arts classes as part of cultural diversity activities. The kits will include artifacts, documents, DVDs, curriculum guides and implementation suggestions for students to learn through hands-on experiences.
Youthprise is partnering with Believe In What's Possible to launch Turn Up to Turn Out, a youth-led project to increase youth participation in Minnesota politics through youth-led civic education and events.
Tusaalo Mentorship Program is an innovative program developed with the goal of connecting Somali youth with local Somali professionals through culturally-specific and school-based mentorship. In Somali, to be a "tusaalo" is to be an example, which is precisely the role we envision for Somali professionals. Focusing on 9th and 10th graders, our goal is to establish the foundations necessary for increased academic engagement and performance.
Our Space Is Spoken For is a multidisciplinary public art storytelling project to creatively foster largescale awareness and dialogue around the untold narratives of how historically marginalized communities redefine and negotiate space. TCMA will curate a cohort of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) artists and St. Paul BIPOC residents to create public art performances inspired by residents’ stories, which will be filmed and later screened as part of a public event and discussion.
Every year, one of the most important embodiments of CAPI's mission is to host Twin Cities World Refugee Day (TCWRD), an event that we have coordinated since 2013 to honor the contributions and cultures of Minnesota's 120,000+ refugees. It is a point of connection for those sharing a common bond as refugees, as well as for others seeking to learn about and engage the diverse refugee community. The event brings local refugee artists to present unique creative elements of their cultures.
This project helps support Connecting the Community to Arts and Cultural Heritage at the 2024 Twin Cities West Metro Asian Fair and will present new arts and cultural heritage programs. These new arts and culture heritage programs have two primary objectives: 1) to preserve and honor the cultural heritage of Minnesota; 2) to provide education and student outreach on cultural diversity through five new programs: Ethnic Attire Experience, Community Artist Demonstrations, Dance Showcase, Traditional Music Exhibitions, and Cross-cultural Tea Display.
Through our “Somali Language and Culture” gatherings, Central MN neighbors will learn conversational Somali phrases they can share with their colleagues, customers, clients, patients, and/or friends. These gatherings will also include a time of learning about the Somali culture! These sessions will be taught by Farhiya Iman, a member of the St. Cloud Somali community, a Unite Cloud speaker, and a local small business owner.
For this project, we are partnering with a local Somali-owned business, Nori Cafe and Creamery. Nori Cafe and Creamery provides a space that bridges the gap between different cultures through events and an array of coffee, tea, smoothies and cold drinks. Starting this past June, they have hosted bi-monthly “Somali Language Nights” where a local member of the Central MN Somali community teaches Somali phrases to non-Somali community members. #unitecloud has promoted this event on our social media and the response has been fantastic!
Conservation of culture including art and local wisdom is one of the main missions of our organization. We operate in promoting and capturing values to create pride in Lao culture and identity, as well as create awareness of morality to the community as well. Our organization encourages and supports all cultures to develop, preserve and pass on the activities that we as an organization help operate with communities and outside agencies.
Drawing on the power of the humanities, Veterans’ Voices changes the narrative of Veterans and honors their contributions. It empowers Veterans to speak in their own voices through plays, discussions, literature, and the Veterans’ Voices Award. Veterans’ Voices will recognize the next great generation and illustrate that the Veteran’s voice is essential to the work of building our great democracy.
Drawing on the power of the humanities, Veterans’ Voices changes the narrative of Veterans and honors their contributions. It empowers Veterans to speak in their own voices through plays, discussions, literature, and the Veterans’ Voices Award. Veterans’ Voices will recognize the next great generation and illustrate that the Veteran’s voice is essential to the work of building our great democracy.
