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Join the Briscoe Book Club to explore great works of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction inspired by the vast and varied experiences of the American West. Participants will discuss a new book each quarter. The next discussion will take place on Tuesday, September 22, on Georgia: A Novel of Georgia O’Keeffe by Dawn Tripp. The Briscoe Book Club is offered via Zoom and facilitated by Paivi Hoikkala, a historian with experience working in higher education with subjects focused in Native American, Women's, American, and Western history. For more information, email education@briscoemuseum.org.

Toni Morrison: A Tribute and a Celebration

When Toni Morrison passed away in August 2019, she was one of the leading voices of American letters, having received the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes and many other top awards for her fiction. Titles such as The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Beloved, Jazz, and Paradise, among others, are still widely read and taught, and her work has become a key source in current national discussions of race, class, and the relationship of art to culture. On Tuesday, September 22, the Dallas Institute will host Toni Morrison: A Tribute and a Celebration, featuring four guest speakers—all scholars who teach and write about Morrison—who will make brief presentations before engaging in a conversation with each other and the audience via video conference.

Emancipation Park was created by Houston's African American community leaders as a place to commemorate the anniversary of their emancipation, Juneteenth. During its 148th Juneteenth Celebration, the Conservancy launched a GPS-led audio guide of its park. Visitors can stream the guide by downloading the free GeoTourist app on their mobile devices and can tour in-person or from the comfort of their homes. The audio guide will lead visitors to the monuments of the founders, formerly enslaved community leaders from the Third and Fourth Ward of Houston, who united residents and civic organizations to commemorate the anniversary of their emancipation by building a park of their own. Emancipation Park and its historic buildings have been designated a Protected Landmark by the City of Houston. It is part of the UNESCO Slave Route Project and the Emancipation National Historical Trail.

Writing Workshops Dallas and Gemini Ink present The Big Texas Read, a monthly virtual book club for readers across the state. Each month, participants read one work of prose or poetry by a Texas author. Upcoming selections include Edge of Dark Water by Joe R. Lansdale, Above Us the Milky Way by Fowzia Karimi, and the poems of Wendy Barker. Author chats, Q&As, and discussions are scheduled every two weeks via Zoom.

At the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M University (TAMU), the Global Health Humanities initiative will present a multi-part webinar series called "Frontline Workers' Stories During Covid-19." Speakers will address topics such as training challenges in the health professions, emotional and physical burnout, and priorities in patient care during a time of crisis. The series will explore the role of sharing and listening to stories in understanding these issues.

The Humanities: Land Sea Space initiative, in partnership with TAMU's Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, will present virtual events on the theme of "Coastal Communities and Justice," focused on environmental justice, energy, community, and forms of resilience in coastal areas in Texas and beyond. The series begins with a screening of the award-winning documentary film Seadrift and Q&A with the director, Tim Tsai, and associate director, Thao Ha. These events are free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required. Please visit the Glasscock Center website for details.

The Houston Museum of African American Culture (HMAAC) has made several programs available on their website. Viewers can enjoy virtual tours of exhibitions such as Everyday Strangers, which explores the diversity of the human race and documents the human story, presented by Alonzo Williams Jr., the museum's first Global Artist Fellow. Other virtual tours include New Growth, highlighting artist Cedric Ingram, and Pride, Dignity, and Courage, featuring works by Ted Ellis. HMAAC has also made recordings of past panels and lectures available online, covering topics such as Black feminism, Juneteenth, and the UNESCO Slave Route Project.

Summer Nights at the Museum is an annual series of family events hosted by the Museum of South Texas History (MOSTHistory) in Edinburg. This series chronicles the history and heritage of South Texas and Northeastern Mexico, engaging families with place-based living history activities. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, MOSTHistory held Summer Nights at the Museum Online, producing a series of bilingual videos and activities shared via the museum's social media platforms and available on YouTube. The historical themes ranged from archaeology and fossils to the museum's most prized artifact, the 1910 Jail.

The Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum and KAMR FOX 14 created a joint project to celebrate the centennial of women's suffrage and the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in August. KAMR featured a weeklong series from August 17–21 interviewing twenty diverse women in the Panhandle community about their jobs, passions, and thoughts on suffrage. The videos are hosted online for continued viewing.

Additionally, #PPHMatHome is a daily posting online of arts, artifacts, and public programming video experiences to followers across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. The museum posts videos of experience-focused activities, such as creating a BB8 during Star Wars Day or tissue paper art of Palo Duro Canyon, one of the area's most beautiful landmarks.

Texas Folklife's Virtual Roundtable Series debuted in March as a new flagship initiative with the goal of keeping the folk and traditional arts community connected during this time of social distancing. Seven installments have been produced thus far, with topics ranging from Radical Care and Folk Traditions to Black Gospel Music and Social Justice. Each discussion features a wide range of experts and artists across multiple folk arts disciplines in the state of Texas. All of the Roundtable Discussions can be found on the Texas Folklife YouTube Channel.

Texas Folklife currently offers two digital exhibitions available to a global community of passionate learners. The Art of the Vintage Ride features photographs of vintage cars taken by Tim Higgins over a period of seven years at the Lone Star Round Up and The Austin Speed Shop in Austin. Stitched Stories of Texas Quilters features quilts made by Texan women as examples of their desire to commemorate and remember the stories of their lives and the lives of others. Both exhibitions are hosted on the Smithsonian Learning Lab, which includes pieces from Smithsonian collections as well as user-generated resources and collections available to view at no cost anywhere in the world.

The Tom Lea Institute has prepared several online lesson plans developed in consultation with district curriculum directors to target high priority subjects while reflecting state-of-the-art pedagogy. Covering topics from the Mexican Revolution to World War II to the New Deal, these resources are available free of charge and include activies for project-based learning. Adults and students alike will learn about the rich heritage of the West Texas region and the iconic art of Tom Lea. Other online initiatives from the Tom Lea Institute include Mindful Mondays yoga classes in collaboration with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and Voices of La Lydia, an online presentation featuring archive materials from the El Paso County Historical Society.