Veterans' Voices: Native Warriors will give Native American students in Minnesota the opportunity to hear memories and stories directly from Native American veterans from within their communities. Funds will also be used to create radio segments featuring the Native American veterans sharing their personal experiences in their own words. These segments will air statewide and be archived online giving all Minnesotans access now and in the future.
Our grant application seeks to promote and preserve Vietnamese culture through the use of traditional Lunar New Year celebration which includes storytelling, music and dance.
Voices of Black Leadership is a vodcast, video podcast series which highlights Black leaders across these strategic focus areas of the African American Leadership Forum: public safety, education, economic infrastructure, health, and housing. This comprises our work known as United By Black Powered By All. This series is intended to inform the broader community of the racial equity work in Minnesota and who is leading these efforts along with how the community can get involved.
Lower Phalen Creek Project (LPCP) seeks funds to implement pre-production of its permanent exhibits at Wakan Tipi Center, a Dakota cultural and environmental interpretive center honoring Wakan Tipi cave, a sacred Dakota place.
Public Art Saint Paul will propel new work forward on the 2nd Wakpa Triennial. The first Wakpa Triennial, 3 years in the making, presented in summer 2023 more than 110 artists in new work across artistic and humanities disciplines including sculpture, installation, video, poetry, music, painting, murals, paper-making, textiles, conversations, and other discussion and participatory programs.
Soccer is important to Somali culture and the most popular sport in Somalia. The proposed activity is our 11th annual Thanksgiving tournament. In order to make the popular tournament a more holistic community event, we will incorporate Somali singers and poets into the soccer tournament program.
West Bank Athletic Club (WBAC) will expand its popular, ten-year running Somali youth soccer tournament into a comprehensive cultural heritage festival that includes Somali-specific sports, arts, and cultural activities. The 2021 WBAC Summer Festival will include a soccer tournament, live Somali music, interactive workshops, speakers, and a variety of arts and cultural activities led by youth.
Over the past five years, awareness of our organization has spread across the state. As a result, our attendance numbers have grown by 66%. We regularly hit max capacity, and the demand for outreach programs has gone up. Ex-S.T.R.E.A.M. expansion addresses three specific elements: 1) New space: Renting an additional 2,800 sq. ft of exhibit space to address spatial constraints.
Why Treaties Matter: Self-Government in the Dakota and Ojibwe Nations is a traveling exhibition made in partnership with the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. The exhibit explores relationships between Dakota and Ojibwe Indian Nations and the U.S. government in this place we now call Minnesota.
The Minnesota Indian Affairs Council in collaboration with the Minnesota Humanities Center will extend and deepen the ongoing partnership around the Why Treaties Matter: Self-Government in the Dakota and Ojibwe Nations exhibition, supporting host sites through December 2012.
Why Treaties Matter: Self-Government in the Dakota and Ojibwe Nations is a traveling exhibition made in partnership with the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. The exhibit explores relationships between Dakota and Ojibwe Indian Nations and the U.S. government in this place we now call Minnesota.
May Lee-Yang will collaborate with local Hmong filmmakers to produce two 30-minute episodes of Hmong Organization, a comedy web series about a Hmong nonprofit and the people who work there. The completed episodes will be made available for free on Youtube.
In 2016, VocalEssence WITNESS welcomes artist Melanie DeMore to help us explore the Underground Railroad in Minnesota—specifically how our state has been a place of sanctuary for refugees from the time of slavery through today. As part of this project, Melanie will help record absent narratives of those who have found sanctuary in Minnesota, and these stories will be shared in video and written form to explore the concept of sanctuary as part of the WITNESS School Program.
This project is comprised of a series of interrelated jazz activities, classes, and workshops, including: 1) Women in Jazz Ensemble (post-secondary students, ages 16-25); 2) introduction to jazz workshops; 3) Jazz jam sessions and rehearsals; 4) school residencies; 5) anti-oppression training/consultation for professional development and to educate, stimulate discussion, and increase awareness of oppressive gender systems; 6) panel discussions; 7) scholarship opportunities.
My proposed project is to create the Urban Native Plant Guide. This set of laminated cards will be a user friendly, portable guide to some of the native plants present in the Minneapolis-St. Paul community. The guide will be created through collaboration and insight from local Native elders and will include traditional uses of the plants, along with their names in Anishinaabe, Dakota, and Lakota where available.
Having completed one year in a new and expanded facility, the Duluth Children’s Museum focused on deepening and enriching the visitor experience. Minnesota Arts and Cultural Legacy funding allowed the Museum to focus on intensive educational program services; the rotation of the exhibits to bring fresh and new experiences to the visitor; and investment in a new tracking and reporting system, Altru by Blackbaud, a project begun with a previous Legacy grant.
Our Writing for Social Change project will have a lasting impact on MN's literary arts and multicultural education. We will equip African Americans to write their own stories as a manifestation of cultural resilience. Inspired by the African proverb until the Lion tells his side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the Hunter,the community will become the lions (leaders) who shape their own destiny through the transformative power of storytelling and cultural preservation.
The Writing for Justice and Cultural Preservation project creates space for the Somali diaspora, other African communities, and African Americans to create, re-imagine, and build a more just and inclusive world through the transformative power of storytelling and book publishing.
This project will provide a writer's cohort that will advance the work of twelve Black writers working in multiple genres. The goals are to 1) deepen individual vision and artistic development; 2) create a cohesive community of writers to support and encourage each other's work; 3) enrich communities of writers and readers with access to personal and cultural perspectives that will foster artistic growth, empathy, and collaboration.
Minnesota Youth in Government (YIG) is a youth-led experience that engages middle and high school youth in democratic governing leadership. Students learn about government process and gain an understanding of local, state, national and international concerns. They research and debate, participate in model Assemblies, United Nations, Youth Conferences on National Affairs, retreats and trainings, and National Judicial Competition, and gain an appreciation of diverse viewpoints in respectful ways.
This project will provide access to theater programs in schools, recreation centers, and other youth serving organizations. The theater arts program will be for BIPOC youth ages 12-17 years old. The program will run for six weeks each season throughout the year plus (spring 2024, summer 2024, fall 2024, winter 2024, and spring 2025) for two hours per day, three days per week.
This project is in phase two of our overarching Knyaw History Archive. Phase two of the archive will be focused on the collaborative work of supporting deep knowledge acquisition of our Knyaw youth of their history and homeland experiences. Phase two of this archive will provide training Knyaw youth in interviewing techniques, videography, video editing, and secondary source research. They will also engage focus groups in discussion with Urban Village staff on the understanding, impact, and importance of preserving culture through archival work.
