Community Calendar

Presented every 3rd Thursday by library director Dr. Christopher Hahn, MusicSpeaks is a discussion of all things musical. Each month features a different musical topic which includes sounds and discussions for you to enjoy.

Adult & Family.

"New York Times" Best Selling author Chris Enss will be signing copies of her book, "An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood’s Most Notorious Bordellos" from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at The Brothel Deadwood. Enss will also present Busts at the Brothel. These 30-minute presentations at 12:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m., and 4:00 p.m. will highlight the raids and arrests during the time the brothels were operating in Deadwood. The event is free and open to the public. Donations are appreciated. Stop by to meet Chris Enss and tour The Brothel. Snacks and bottled water will be served. Special drawings will be available to brothel visitors throughout the day.

Oceti Sakowin artist and author starts programs for SDAM Art Guild

The South Dakota Art Museum Guild begins a new year of programs at 10 a.m. Tuesday, September 26 to examine different expressions of art.

In follow-up to the recent conclusion of Dakota Modern: the Art of Oscar Howe exhibition, Lanniko Lee, a tribally-enrolled Miniconjou citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, poet and writer, will give a talk titled, “Art is … Becoming a Good Ancestor” to expand on the role that tribal artists play in society.

Lee is a charter member of the Oak Lake Writers Society, now Oceti Sakowin Society Writers, to model and encourage Native authors. Her poetry and essays have appeared in several publications. She participated in an early U.S. Department of Education “Upward Bound” program to encourage high school students with limited access to attend college. Oscar Howe was one of the USD professors at the time who inspired Lee to pursue higher education. She went on to earn a B.A. from Arcadia University in Pennsylvania and an M.A. from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English in Vermont. Once she completed her schooling, she taught art, literature and composition to high school and college students. Lee has also engaged in entrepreneurial ventures from her home near Lake Oahe in north central South Dakota. She lives there with her husband on a small acreage with a flock of sheep, a cat and a plethora of wild birds that feed her respect for her role in the continuum of life. Lee is also on the advisory board of the South Dakota Art Museum.

Art Guild coffee and social time begins at 9:30 a.m. with the program set for 10 a.m. The public is invited to attend. Guild membership is not required to attend the free monthly programs. However, $20 annual dues support these programs and the Guild art acquisition fund. Membership is open to all. Programs begin in September and run through May.

The South Dakota Art Museum is located at 1036 Medary Ave. in Brookings. Designated free parking is located on Harvey Dunn Street, just west of the museum.

For more information about Art Guild, please contact Jeanne Manzer at 605-691-1018. For more information about the South Dakota Art Museum contact Carolyne Hart at 605-688-4313.

What if starting up a computer game could offer us as meaningful a natural
experience as going outside? Games, especially digital ones, are frequently
dismissed as frivolous, arcane, or violent, and people tend to picture those
who play them as antisocial homebodies. But research shows that games are
played by nearly everyone, often together with others, and, increasingly, that
they are played wherever we go. This talk contends that games offer unique
and playfully persuasive opportunities not only to engage directly with
environmental issues, but also to foster moments of empathy, loss, care,
experimentation, and optimism—important ways of coming to terms with our
planetary troubles.

Nationally recognized architect Pascale Sablan, FAIA, NOMA, will speak at Augustana University on Tuesday, Sept. 26 as part of SAY IT LOUD South Dakota, an exhibition spotlighting the contributions of women and diverse designers to South Dakota’s built environment. Sablan’s lecture is part of a national movement of sharing, protecting and celebrating the journey of the underrepresented to inspire the next generation. SAY IT LOUD exhibitions have been hosted across a spectrum of communities from Nebraska and Montana to New York, Chicago and London.

We live in an anxious age. Our age of radical autonomy, far from liberating us into blissful independence, has left us depressed, suicidal, and medicated. What if we saw ourselves not as disconnected, atomized individuals, but as part of a story, a narrative?

This Noon Forum uses J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium, primarily The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, as a guide for the perplexed. It is among hearth and home, kith and kin where we can find contentment and hope in an anxious age.

Join us for an evening of laughter as we celebrate the everyday experiences that somehow become absurd in their retelling with award-winning columnist, Dorothy Rosby. The 2022 global winner of the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition in the humor category, Rosby is a keen observer of people and situations and uses her own life adventures to share humor with others. Visit our author page for more information about Dorothy Rosby and her books.

The event is free with donations accepted to support Augustana Library Associates programming.

Register to attend in person or to watch the livestream. Seating is general admission.

augielink.com/fallauthor2023

Questions about the event? Call the Mikkelsen Library at 605.274.4921

Join us for our Banned Books Lunch and Learn on October 6th at 12 p.m. We will be discussing the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How of Banned Books 🧐
This event is available via In person and on Zoom. To register for Zoom go to bit.ly/vplbanned

In this presentation, NSU Sociology professor Pam Monaghan-Geernaert and American Indian Circle Program Director Lara Nelson will talk about the experiences of their "traveling classroom" trip to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation this last summer. and what the tribe is doing.

Join us for to learn more about what's happening in Indian Country and to discuss ways is NSU is creating experiential learning opportunities through the Traveling Classroom

The Benedictine Sisters of Sacred Heart Monastery’s Peace Center offer this year’s Spiritual Enrichment Program, designed for Christian men and women in search of radical interior freedom. The program will meet online one Saturday morning per month, from 9:30 to 11:30 am, from September through April. Those interested are welcome to gather with Sister staff members to share prayer and dialogue on the selected reading.

Guided by Albert Nolan’s book Jesus Today: A Spirituality of Radical Freedom, we will discover our own personal transformations through Jesus’ spirituality and the experience of oneness. The text invites dialogue on topics such as The Signs of our Times, and Jesus’ Spirituality. As part of this program, participants are invited to schedule a personal silent retreat, with two overnights, at our Peace Center in Yankton.

The Benedictines who staff the Benedictine Peace Center - Sisters Jeanne Ranek, Doris, Oberembt, and Mary Jo Polak, look forward to gathering via Zoom with men and women from coast to coast and beyond who desire to deepen their faith life by connecting with others with a similar desire. Registration is requested by August 20. Find more information at https://yanktonbenedictines.org/spiritual-enrichment-program/. Register online or contact the Peace Center at benedictinepeacectr@yanktonbenedictines.org or call 605-668-6292.