A new season of Nerd Nite Lawrence begins now!

Wednesday, Sepember 12 Doors open at 7:00, presentations start at 8. Cost is one dollar.
1031 New Hampshire St, Lawrence

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We’re bringing you 3 intriguing talks covering lesser-known history that you might not be aware of and are sure to leave you thinking a little differently.

Maceli’s will have drinks and light food available. We’ll be bringing back our popular raffle prize drawing, and you’ll see old friends, maybe make new friends, and enjoy an evening of learning!

Keeping Legends Alive
by Jancita Warrington

In October 1926, the dedication ceremony of the Haskell Stadium and Memorial Arch took place. This dedication was important for many reasons – it still stands as the largest event in the history of Lawrence, KS, the archway is the first WWI memorial in history, the fancy dance we know at powwows today originated at Haskell in 1926, the stadium was the first lighted stadium in the Midwest bringing night games to this portion of the country, the only stadium of its kind at the time fully paid for, and KU’s first night game in the school’s history was made as Phog Allen borrowed the lights from the Haskell field and temporarily installed them for the game against Haskell in 1930. This ceremony in 1926 reminded dominant society that Tribal peoples no longer represented the “Indian” that once aroused fear and animosity among mainstream society.

Little-Known Slave Rebellions in the Americas
by William Garcia

We’ll be covering a few moments in history where groups of enslaved people risked it all to obtain their freedom We’ll examine slave insurrections in Latin America and the Caribbean such as Sebastian Lemba, Benkos Bioho, Carlota, Gaspar Yanga, Jose Leonardo Chirino, and Jose Antonio Aponte among others.

German Spies In Kansas, 1935 
by George Laughead

In June 1935, a group of Germans traveling on the German ship “Berlin” landed in New York and started on a tour of the USA, from Maine through Illinois, and Kansas, and back to Virginia. They took hundreds of photographs and made a movie. The reason for the trip to see “every Hanover in the world” — as stated by the Landeshauptmann (President) of the state of Hannover, Germany. They said they were from the Institute of Civic Development of Hannover, and that three of them were “a historian, a geographer, and a photographer.” The trip took them within miles of virtually every important US army base, army airfield, and navy port that existed in 1935. Eighty years ago, the Germans sent back a leather-covered book of photographs. The album was sent to the mayor of Hanover, Kansas, in July 1936, as a “thank you” for their visit in August 1935. They include photographs of German Navy uniformed men and a party flag over their car hood, outside of Hanover, Kansas.

ABOUT OUR PRESENTERS

Jancita Warrington (Potawatomi/Ho-Chunk) is a graduate of Haskell Indian Nations University and currently serves as the director and curator of the Haskell Cultural Center and Museum

William García is an Afro-Puerto Rican raised between New York and Puerto Rico. William has a Bachelor’s and a Master’s in History from the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras where he focused on Caribbean music and transnational migration between the United States and the circum-Caribbean. While completing this project, he worked as an educator in Austin, Texas, which later prompted him to move to New York City and complete a Master’s in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College-Columbia University. William’s Action Research Project focused on the lack of historical literacies in elementary schools.
As a PhD student in American Studies at KU, William’s research is aimed at re-narrating black diasporic historiography in the United States through an afro-diasporic lens in order to explore how Afro-Americanness—as a homogenized identity that has been mediated through the nation—invisibilizes diasporic blackness such as black migrant creolizations, resulting in a U.S. black-white bifurcated re-coloniality of racial discourse and citizenship. He believes that uncovering the reasons why Afro-Americans have more representation in the media and institutions than other marginalized groups at the expense of diasporic blackness and other narratives from people of color will foster more unity and inclusive narratives among marginalized groups.

George Laughead was a student of the late Dr. Lynn H. Nelson, University of Kansas History Professor Emeritus, the author of the first history sites on the web. George has been a museum volunteer for decades and was on the board of the Mountain Plains Museums Association and Kansas Museums Association. He is retired from magazine publishing.