Humanities Nebraska

History on Foot: Germans from Russia
2026-05-31 13:00 - 15:00 (America/Chicago) | T’Dance, 1400 W. A St., Hastings, 68901, United States
Join us as we take a walking tour of the western settlement of Germans From Russia. We’ll visit several homes, churches, and grocery stores as we take a closer look at the families that came to Hastings in the 1880s and 1890s. Sponsored by Hastings Museum.
Meet at T’Dance (1400 W. A St.)
May 31, 1-3 pm
June 16, 9-11 am

Free will donation appreciated.

2026 Loper Launch Summer Enrichment Camps (registered students only)
2026-06-01 07:30 - 13:00, 2026-06-02 07:30 - 13:00, 2026-06-03 07:30 - 13:00, 2026-06-04 07:30 - 13:00, 2026-06-05 07:30 - 13:00, 2026-06-08 07:30 - 13:00, 2026-06-09 07:30 - 13:00 | Kearney NE
The University of Nebraska at Kearney is excited to bring curriculum-based summer camps to our community. We invite students entering grades 1-8 to join us on UNK’s campus for enrichment camps that are not only fun and engaging, but also educational.
Loper Launch Campers (and their adults) can choose between our academies and our one-week themed workshops. Countdown Hour is also available for those needing an early drop-off option.

2026 Bright Lights summer camp (registered students only)
2026-06-01 09:00 - 16:00, 2026-06-02 09:00 - 16:00, 2026-06-03 09:00 - 16:00, 2026-06-04 09:00 - 16:00, 2026-06-05 09:00 - 16:00, 2026-06-08 09:00 - 16:00 | Lincoln – multiple locations, Lincoln, United States
Bright Lights provides unique, motivating, hands-on summer learning camps for K-8th grade students, including in humanities subjects like literature and writing, history, and world cultures and languages.
The camp application deadline is at least one week before each week’s camps begin (subject to availability). For details about camps, visit the Bright Lights camps list.

A Bad Man in the Good Life: Jesse James in Nebraska
2026-06-01 19:00 - 20:00 | Valley Fire Department, 401 E Meigs, Valley, NE, 68064, United States
Speaker: Jeff Barnes
Sponsored by the Valley Historical Society

Nebraska Poets Reading Series: Judy Lorenzen
2026-06-02 18:30 - 19:30 | Virtual Program
The free monthly Nebraska Poets Reading Series highlights the talent of Nebraska poets and invites discussion with audience members. All events are free online, but registration is required to receive an event link. Registration links for each poet’s event and additional details about each poet are available on the Nebraska Poetry Society’s website.
Judy Lorenzen’s poetry holds both joy and sorrow—family, forgiveness, and the quiet wonders of nature. Honest and tender, her work has been praised for the way love threads through even life’s struggles.
Judy Lorenzen is a poet, writer, and teaching artist. Her education includes a Doctorate of English, Composition and Rhetoric, December 2016, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Dissertation: Teaching Place: Heritage, Home and Community, the Heart of Education; Master of Art in Creative Writing, May 2008, University of Nebraska at Kearney, Thesis: Let Autumn Come; Doctorate of Theology, May 2000, Andersonville Theological Seminary; Master of Science in Community Counseling, May 1998, University of Nebraska at Kearney; and a Bachelor of Arts in English, Emphasis in Writing, Philosophy Minor, May 1995, University of Nebraska at Kearney. Her first book, Turning Back to Her Love Pages, was published in June 2025.

America 100: The 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2026-06-02 18:30 - 19:30 | Norfolk Public Library, 308 W. Prospect Ave., Norfolk, NE, 68701, United States
Speaker: David Wells
Sponsored by the Norfolk Public Library

Black Print with a White Carnation: Mildred Brown and the Omaha Star
2026-06-03 13:15 - 14:15 | Immanuel Village, 6803 N. 68th Plaza, Omaha, NE, 68152, United States
Speaker: Amy Forss
Sponsored by Immanuel Village

A Century of Fashion: 1870-1970
2026-06-04 09:30 - 10:30 | Centenary United Methodist Church-Beatrice, 608 Elk St., Beatrice, NE, 68310, United States
Speaker: Sue McLain
Sponsored by the Centenary United Methodist Church

Bess Streeter Aldrich: In Her Own Words
2026-06-04 12:45 - 13:45 | Oak Trail Village, 410 Ball Park Road, Ponca, NE, 68770, United States
Speaker: Jolene McLaughlin
Sponsored by the Ponca Carnegie Library

71st Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference - Memory, Myth, and Meaning: Cather in Dialogue with America 250
2026-06-04 13:00 - 19:30, 2026-06-05 09:00 - 20:30, 2026-06-06 08:00 - 21:00 | The National Willa Cather Center, 413 N Webster St, Red Cloud, Nebraska, 68970
The Willa Cather Spring Conference returns with the theme “Memory, Myth, and Meaning: Cather in Dialogue with America 250.” This event invites readers, scholars, and artists to explore the enduring relevance of Willa Cather’s work. Centered on the publication centenary of her novella My Mortal Enemy, the program features keynote speaker Rebecca Romney, scholarly plenaries, and a mixed media exhibit by Susan Hart. Other highlights include the opening of All Aboard: West-Bound Trains in American Culture at the historic Burlington Depot and a special performance of The Bohemian by Harbor Stage Company. Set in Cather’s hometown of Red Cloud, the conference offers a rich blend of scholarship, art, and place. The event will be a celebration of Cather’s literature in dialogue with America’s past and present.
Registration for conference ranges in price, depending on membership and options selected. Visit the conference website for full details and to register.
The following portions of the conference are free and open to the public:

“Cancer and Caregiving: Willa Cather’s My Mortal Enemy” with Heather Althoff, 1 p.m. Thursday
“From Typescripts, to Magazine Novelette, to Book: The Writing and Publication of ‘My Mortal Enemy’ ” with Melissa Homestead, 3:45 p.m. Thursday“
To Think of All That Was Remembered and Retold: Educators in Cather’s Red Cloud” with Marcy Mahoney, Melissa Schuster and Marisa Zornes, 10:30 a.m. Friday
“Willa Cather, the Archival Chain, and the Making of a Literary Legacy” with Rebecca Romney, 7 p.m. Friday
“From Page to Stage: Adapting Cather,” with Brenda Withers and Jonathan Fielding of Harbor Stage Co., 10:45 a.m. Saturday
The Passing Show: “What Cather’s Literature Means to American Culture” with Bridget Barry, Brad Bigelow, Will Fellows and Garrett Peck, 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

The British Isles and Irish Sampler
2026-06-04 19:00 - 20:00 | Morton-James Public Library, 923 1st Corso, Nebraska City, NE, 68410, United States
Speaker: Chris Sayre
Sponsored by the Morton James Public Library

Willa Cather, the Archival Chain, and the Making of a Literary Legacy
2026-06-05 19:00 - 20:30 | Red Cloud Opera House, 413 N. Webster St., Red Cloud, NE, 68970, United States
This event is part of the 71st Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference on June 4-6, on the theme of “Memory, Myth, and Meaning: Cather in Dialogue with America 250.” Click here for more information about the conference.
Rebecca Romney’s lecture on “Willa Cather, the Archival Chain, and the Making of a Literary Legacy” considers the effects of archival collections on the writing of literary history, with special emphasis on Cather’s posthumous legacy. Such collections are not formed accidentally. They exist through the efforts of individual people, archival agents who save material, become its long-term caretakers, and make it accessible for study. The decisions of archival agents, big and small, can cause ripple effects across the stories we tell.
This event is free, but registration is strongly encouraged to reserve your spot and receive event updates by email! Click here for more information and to register.
The talk will be broadcast live on YouTube and a recording will be available for two weeks after the event.

Rebecca Romney is a rare book dealer and author of three books, Jane Austen’s Bookshelf, Printer’s Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History), and The Romance Novel in English: A Survey in Rare Books. As a generalist rare book dealer, Romney handles work in all fields, from first editions of Jane Austen to science fiction paperbacks to Shakespeare Folios. Since 2011, Romney has appeared on the HISTORY Channel’s television show Pawn Stars as the rare book specialist. Romney was also featured in The Booksellers, a documentary about the rare book trade in New York that premiered at the New York Film Festival. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Forbes, Variety, The Paris Review, and more. With a passion for discussing the enduring power of literature, the relevance of book collecting, and the preservation of history, Romney weaves together her experience and knowledge in captivating talks.

Abraham Lincoln, America’s Greatest Political Orator
2026-06-06 10:00 - 11:00 | Legacy of the Plains Musuem, 2930 Old Oregon Trail, Gering, NE, 69341, United States
Speaker: Fred Nielsen
Sponsored by the Legacy of the Plains Museum

Bed Turning: An American Quilt Show
2026-06-06 14:00 - 15:30 | Hastings Museum, 1330 N. Burlington Ave., Hastings, NE, 68901, United States
A bed turning is quilt show where multiple quilts are stacked on a bed and removed one by one, with a presenter sharing the history, techniques, and stories behind each piece. Bed Turnings started as a way for women to showcase their finest needlework to neighbors. This Bed Turning is a way for the Hastings Museum to showcase some of our quilts and textiles with our neighbors.

Music of the Plains
2026-06-07 14:00 - 15:00 | Elmwood Christian Church, 311 N. 5th St., Elmwood, NE, 68349, United States
Speaker: David Marsh
Sponsored by the Bess Streeter Aldrich Foundation

Remember the Ladies: Stitching Together a Revolution
2026-06-07 14:00 - 15:00 | Anna Bemis Palmer Museum, 520 North Grant Avenue, York, NE, 68467, United States
Speaker: Janie York
Sponsored by the Anna Bemis Palmer Museum

Native American Film Series: Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild]
2026-06-08 19:00 - 20:30 | Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, 313 North 13th Street, Lincoln, NE, 68508, United States
Every second Monday evening of each month, Vision Maker Media and The Ross Media Arts Center present free in-person public screenings that feature Native American films by and about Native Americans and Alaska Natives. The Native American Film Series showcases stories about cultural heritage, art, history, music, civic leadership, youth, and more. Q&A sessions enhance each screening. Please check The Ross website to confirm screening time.
Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild]
In the sterile archives of museums our ancestor’s remains struggle to find their way home. The film follows the eleven indigenous repatriation specialists that make up MACPRA (Michigan Anishinaabek Cultural Preservation & Repatriation Alliance). Through an essayistic approach the film takes a critical look at the reasoning that justified unearthing and collecting them in the first place, and presents vérité portraits of the courageous individuals doing the hard and emotionally draining work of fighting for their return.
The June 8 screening will be followed by a discussion with Zack Khalil (Director/Producer/Cinematographer), Jacque Clark (Producer/Additional Cinematographer/Sound Recordist), and Samuli Haavisto (Cinematographer). Moderated by Shirley Sneve (ICT Newscast Senior Producer).
Shirley Sneve is the senior producer for the ICT Newscast, a program of IndiJ Public Media. The weekly half-hour magazine show airs on 80 percent of PBS stations, Australia, Canada and several on-line streaming platforms, including Free Speech TV. A member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, Sneve is also affiliated with the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. She directed Vision Maker Media from 2004-2019, which is the largest US funder of Indigenous documentary film projects for public broadcasting. She lives in Lincoln, Nebraska and serves on the boards of the Near South Neighborhood Association, The Circle (Minneapolis, MN) The Center for Rural Strategies (Whitesburg, KY) and Arts Extension Institute (Amherst, MA).
Zack Khalil, a member of the Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a filmmaker and artist whose work centers Indigenous narratives in the present—and looks towards the future—through the use of innovative nonfiction forms. Khalil is a core contributor to New Red Order, a public-secret society which calls attraction toward indigeneity into question, yet promotes this desire, and enjoins potential non-Indigenous accomplices to participate in the co-examination and expansion of Indigenous agency. Khalil is the co-director and co-editor of the feature documentary INAATE/SE/it shines a certain way. to a certain place/ it flies/falls/ which premiered as the closing night film of the Museum of Modern Art’s Doc Fortnight Film Festival, and the experimental documentary short The Violence of a Civilization without Secrets (2017) which premiered at Sundance. Khalil also works professionally as a video editor, most recently co-editing Alison O’Daniels feature film The Tuba Thieves (2023), which premiered at Sundance. Khalil’s own work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, Sundance Film Festival, New York Film Festival, CPH: DOX, HKW, Walker Arts Center, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Creative Time, Toronto Biennial 2019, Whitney Biennial 2019, 59th Venice Biennale, Sharjah Biennial 15, Counterpublic Triennial 2023, among other institutions. Khalil is the recipient of various fellowships and grants, including a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, Sundance Art of Nonfiction, and Gates Millennium Scholarship.
Jacque Clark, a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a creative producer with a focus on film and music. Their work emphasizes the human search for meaning while exploring relationships with reality. With a background in mortuary science before choosing an artistic path, Clark brings a unique perspective to the creative process, viewing art as poetic science experiments for generating further conversations. Jacque Clark is based out of Minneapolis MN, and also resides part time in Saint Ste. Marie MI.
Samuli Haavisto is a Finnish American documentary cinematographer and commercial director. Samuli is a longtime contributor to works by Adam and Zack Khalil and New Red Order, including The Violence of a Civilization without Secrets (2017, Sundance Premiere), Give It Back: Crimes Against Realty (2024), and Aanikoobijigan [ancestor / great-grandparent / great-grandchild] (2025, Sundance Premiere).
