The Center for Leadership and Neighborhood Engagement works to organize and mobilize the faith community to affect positive systems change. Our intercultural work aims at communicating culture across racial divides. Through this project we will celebrate and honor creative cultural communication with youth through counter-storytelling, educating joint learning communities, and training cultural heritage organizers to educate and rejuvenate cultural identity in the community.
On May 20,1863 in St Louis, Missouri the Union Army Special Agent of Contrabands sent 218 African Descendant persons to Ft Snelling on the Steamboat Davenport. The Steamboat Northerner towed a raft to Ft Snelling arriving on May 5, 1863. This project seeks to document the resettlement at Ft Snelling and how this group and Black Civil War Veterans changed the course of history in Minnesota by succeeding in amending the state Constitution to grant citizenship to African American men in 1869.
Walker West Music Academy's Amazing Grace Chorus for elders is a unique receptacle of Black cultural heritage/a wealth of lived MN Black experience. This project will capture that rich experience/the memories of those aging keepers of an important part of Black culture through the vehicle of gospel music & a series of events/activities & will culminate in a 45-min. documentary. This will ensure that this interconnected culture & history are preserved & passed on to the next generation.
Olmsted County Fair offers a free stage featuring all Rochester, MN or southeastern Minnesota-based musical artists every night of the fair. We plan to use funds from the Legacy Grant to help bring these musical and performing artists to our fair. A few of our featured acts this year include bands County Line Drive and The Soul Train.
