September 26 | Barry Babcock – Bonga: A Safe Abode in the Wilderness – Author Barry Babcock, born in South Dakota, joins SDHC Scholar Lawrence Diggs for a conversation about his latest book that tells the incredible story of an African slave and family and their escape from the West Indies to the Northwoods of the Great Lakes.
October 3 | Norm Matteoni – A Phantom Storm: Sitting Bull, America, and the Ghost Dance – Norman Matteoni, author and founder of Matteoni, O’Laughlin & Hechtman Law Firm in California, joins SDHC Scholar Lawrence Diggs to reflect on Sitting Bull, the Ghost Dance, and the words and actions of the nation’s media.
October 10 | David Charpentier – The Boy Who Promised Me Horses – David Charpentier, author and 2024 Festival Presenter, joins SDHC Scholar Lawrence Diggs for a conversation about his book, which addresses themes of genocide, thievery, and forced assimilation.
October 17 | Jacob Friefeld – Black Homesteaders in South Dakota – Jacob Friefeld, director of the Center for Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois Springfield and coauthor of Homesteading the Plains: Toward a New History and The First Migrants: How Black Homesteaders’ Quest for Land and Freedom Heralded America’s Great Migration, joins scholar Lawrence Diggs to discuss the history of the Homestead Act as well of the tens of thousands of Black Americans who left the South after the Civil War to homestead in the Great Plains.
October 24 | Anna Farro Henderson – Core Samples: A Climate Scientist’s Experiments in Politics & Motherhood – Anna Farro Henderson, award-winning writer, PhD scientist, and environmental policy expert, joins SDHC Scholar Lawrence Diggs to share a unique perspective of science, politics, and motherhood.
October 31 George McAuliffe and Bryant High Horse, Jr. – Oyate Woyaka: The People Speak – George McAuliffe and Bryant High Horse, Jr., co-directors of the feature-length film, Oyate Woyaka: The People Speak, join scholar Lawrence Diggs to discuss the film and the effects that boarding schools have had on the preservation of language and cultural heritage, as well as ongoing efforts to revive Indigenous language and cultures.
NOTE: SDHC expects program participants to behave respectfully. Any questionable conduct may be considered grounds for removal from program participation.
