April 12 - May 21, 2012
Untold Stories celebrates its fourteenth anniversary with a month of lectures, tours, performances and more!
David Bacon: Illegal People
Thursday, April 12, 7 pm
Macalester College, Weyerhaeuser Chapel
1600 Grand Avenue
Writer and photojournalist David Bacon returns to the Untold Stories series with a talk on his new book Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants. Bacon is also the author of Children of NAFTA and the photo-documentary project Communities Without Borders.
Ricardo Dominguez
Part of the David Noble Lecture Series
Tuesday, April 17, 5 pm
University of Minnesota, Regis Center for Art (East)
Influx Room, 405 21st Avenue South, Minneapolis
The 18th annual David Noble Lecture, presented by the American Studies Department, features Professor Ricardo Dominguez, co-founder of the Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT). He is co-Director of Thing (thing.net) an ISP for artists and activists, and an Associate Professor at University of California San Diego in the Visual Arts Department.
Woody Guthrie at 100
Thursday, April 19, 7 pm
St. Paul Labor Centre, 411 Mahoney (Main) Street
Celebrate the centennial of Woody Guthrie’s birth with a program featuring folk singer Darryl Holter, a former labor education director for the Wisconsin AFL-CIO and labor educator at UCLA, who has developed a “Woody Guthrie in Los Angeles” presentation/performance, and renowned Twin Cities labor troubadour Larry Long, who has applied and extended Woody Guthrie’s aesthetics and energies for the past four decades.
Socialist Traditions in City Hall
Monday, April 23, 7 pm
Merriam Park Branch Library, 1831 Marshall Avenue
In the first decades of the 20th century, two Socialist mayors shaped the future of the Twin Cities. In 1916, Machinists union leader Thomas VanLear won election in Minneapolis as the “Public Ownership Candidate.” Sixteen years later, Farmer Labor Party founder William Mahoney became Mayor of St. Paul. Tom O’Connell of Metropolitan State University and Barb Kucera of the Labor Education Service discuss how they left their mark on their respective communities.
Around the World in St. Paul
Thursday, April 26, 7 pm
Minnesota Humanities Center, 987 Ivy Avenue East
It’s the 80th anniversary of the publication of Alice Sickels’ book, Around the World in St. Paul,
about the creation of the Festival of Nations. Join Immigration History
Research Center’s Donna Gabbacia and undergraduates from the program
working on oral histories and the Minnesota 2.0 Facebook archive for a
look at the various communities coming together to create the St. Paul
we know today.
Workhaus Collective: “The Mill” Post-show discussion
Saturday, April 28, 8 pm
The Playwrights Center, 2301 East Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis
Join Professor Peter Rachleff, the playwright and others for a post-show discussion of “The Mill” a new play by Jeannine Coulombe. During a heat wave in the Ice Box of the Nation, a company is bent on busting a union, workers fight to save their livelihoods, and one family is swept into the powder keg. Based on real events, “The Mill” is about strikes, immigration and the shredding of the American Dream. All performances are pay-what-you-can. Runs April 20 - May 5. For more information, visit www.workhauscollective.org. For tickets, visit www.brownpapertickets.com
Living the Revolution -
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
No further information is available.
Tuesday, May 1, Noon
Elmer Andersen Library, 222 21st Avenue South, Minneapolis
The Immigration History Research Center features Jennifer Guglielmo, of Smith College, who presents Living the Revolution: Italian Immigrant Women’s Anarchist Feminism in Early Twentieth Century New York City, followed by a reading from the works (in Italian and in translation) of anarchist poet Virgilia D’Andrea.
Workplaces: Readings & Chorus
Tuesday, May 1, 7 pm
Rondo Community Outreach Library, 461 North Dale Street
Join the Twin Cities Labor Chorus and guest readers for selections from several different works exploring labor and place, including Charles Walker’s American City, Candacy Taylor’s Counter Culture, Alice Sickels’ Around the World in St. Paul, John Nichols’ Uprising, and more.
Uprising: Why Wisconsin?
Wednesday,
May 2, 7 pm
Carpenters' Union Hall
730
Olive Street, St. Paul
The uprising in Wisconsin last year didn’t just happen. It was the result, author John Nichols argues, of history – because the workers, students, farmers, and so many other citizens of Wisconsin knew their legacy and knew what real democracy demands. Nichols, a writer for The Nation, is based in Madison, and that gave him a first-hand (and often inside) look at the massive protests. In his new book, Uprising, Nichols positions Wisconsin’s activism as a revival not just of the state’s legacy dating to “Fighting Bob” LaFollette and the 20th-century Progressives, but also in the democratic vision of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. It’s a democracy rooted in “First Amendment remedies” – with roots that exist in other states, too, Nichols says, including the Farmer-Labor tradition in Minnesota.
Czechs & Paychecks: Working-class History of West 7th
Tuesday, May 8, 7 pm
CSPS Hall, 383 Michigan Street
Hear the voices and stories of Czech workers and their families from the West 7th neighborhood, including acclaimed author Patricia Hampl, labor historians Dave Riehle and John Sielaff discussing John Rachac, a carpenter on the Capitol building project.
“Are You Now or Have You Ever Been…” Post-show discussion
Wednesday, May 9, 7:30 pm
Guthrie Theater, Dowling Studio, 818 South 2nd Street, Minneapolis
Join playwright Carlyle Brown for a post-show discussion of his new play “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been…” running through May 20. The year is 1953 in the Harlem apartment of writer Langston Hughes on the night prior to his appearance at the McCarthy hearings. Enjoy $15 tickets for the performance May 9 at 7:30 p.m. Call 612-377-2224 and mention “LIBRARY” to reserve tickets. Offer not valid online, with other offers or on previously purchased tickets.
Culture & Class in Post-War Milwaukee
Wednesday, May 16, 7 pm
St. Anthony Park Branch Library, 2245 Como Avenue
Untold Stories crosses the state border with Professor Eric Fure-Slocum, author of the forthcoming project Postwar Democracy: How Growth and Working-Class Politics Reshaped a 1940s City, with an examination of post-war Wisconsin.
"GET ON THE BUS!"
Ghost Trails & Places: Looking for St. Paul’s Native American Footprint
Saturday, May 19, 2 pm
Rice Street Branch Library, 1011 Rice Street
Labor historian Dave Riehle’s annual bus tour commemorates the 150th anniversary of the US-Dakota war. The earliest inhabitants of the area encompassing St. Paul are the Dakota people, who were forcibly removed from Minnesota after the US-Dakota War of 1862. Very little is recorded about the Dakota within the present confines of the city, but this tour will visit sites, some buried beneath modern roads and landscapes, that tell their story. Space is limited. Call 651-222-3242 to reserve a free seat on the tour. For more information, please call Alayne at 651-366-6488 or email alayne@thefriends.org.
Counter Culture with Candacy Taylor
Monday, May 21, 7 pm
Metropolitan State University Library, Ecolab Room 645 East Seventh Street
Celebrate National Waitress Day with a special multi-media lecture by Candacy Taylor, author of Counter Culture: The American Coffee Shop Waitress, which profiles waitresses 50 and older who work in diners throughout the United States. Taylor, photographer, writer and former waitress, uses quotes, cultural criticism, photography and oral histories to document an overlooked group of working women who have brought meaning and culture to the American roadside dining experience.
Look back through history, and see previous years' events:
Untold Stories is coordinated by The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library. Unless listed, all events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit us online at www.thefriends.org or call 651-222-3242. Co-sponsors include Carlyle Brown & Company, Immigration History Research Center, Guthrie Theater, Macalester College History Department, Department of Social Sciences and Gender & Sexuality Services at Metropolitan State University, Micawber’s Books, Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, Minnesota Humanities Center, Ramsey County Historical Society, Saint Paul Labor Speakers Club, Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, Sokol MN, Twin Cities Labor History Society, the University of Minnesota Department of American Studies, the University of Minnesota Labor Education Service and Workhaus Collective. This series is supported by an endowment created with grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and The Saint Paul Foundation, as well as a gift from the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees and additional support from the Macalester College Institute for Global Citizenship and UFCW Local 1189.
