We invite participants to reflect on their own histories and personal engagement with mutual aid. This community dialogue will begin by asking how we, as residents of Minneapolis, have assumed responsibility for the care and well-being of one another in the past. Our program will include an hour long participant dialogue built around the archival materials presented during the program. These archives will include photographs, objects, and personal stories that have shaped our shared environments in order to ask: What are the stories of housing, food, and health that re-tell how people in Minneapolis have survived together? What do we want our futures to look like?

This community dialogue will launch a series of public events which explore the history of mutual aid through art, archives, and community dialogue.

The image used for this post is from an event outside of The Way community center in North Minneapolis. Approximately 1985. Photographer: Charles Chamblis. Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.

More to come!

BOOK: Dean Spade, Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During this Crisis (And the Next) , 2020

BOOK: Pyotr Kropotkin, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, 1902

WEBSITE: American Indian Movement (AIM) Interpretive Center Website <www.aim-ic.org>

ARCHIVE: Minnesota Historical Society Collections <http://search.mnhs.org/?brand=findaids>

ARCHIVE: Hennepin History Museum Collections

This History for the Future public program was hosted by the Hennepin History Museum, with support from the University of Minnesota Heritage Studies and Public History program and the Lake Street Breathe initiative.