And while people of color live throughout Dane County, their relatively small numbers in some communities doesn’t lead to a wealth of programming about people of color.

“Library programming, a lot of the time, happens through relationships,” Trevino-Murphy said. “There are certain programmers who do a program in one library. It goes well. Everyone hears about it. And they start to get a lot of gigs. Those relationships in majority white communities tended to be with majority white presenters. This is an opportunity for a library that wanted to diversify their programming, but didn’t have the system relationships to get some support in starting that work.”

This year, there are 50 programs being funded by Beyond the Page presented by about 20 presenters representing the communities of color in Dane County. It is very diverse.

“We originally put the call out in 2019,” Trevino-Murphy said about recruiting presenters. “I think everyone who applied in 2019 were brought back. And then we put the call out again in spring 2021. People applied and almost everyone who applied was accepted. But what we were looking for was a humanities program with a clear connection to racial equity that works in a library. Some people had some really exciting big ideas that were too big for the buildings. But we’re developing those relationships in thinking what we might be able to do in the future with them. It’s a really interesting mix of people and different things they are talking about and different areas of expertise. We have music, art, literature, history, storytelling, and poetry.”

And all of them explore topics of concern in communities of culture or aspects of their culture.

“One presenter is Karen Ann Hoffman who is a raised beadwork artists from the Oneida Nation,” Trevino-Murphy said. “She is going to be doing a presentation on Native art and Native and Western ways of thinking about art. She is going to be bringing in her activist, experienced friend from Stevens Point. They found out that there is a large Native burial site that was never honored in any way. And so, she is doing a project to bring Native artists together to honor that site.”

Even though the Hmong are a relatively recent arrival to the U.S., there is the concern that the Hmong will lose their unique culture. One of the presenters is working to preserve the culture.

“Neng Now is sort of a Renaissance man,” Trevino-Murphy said. “He is doing a presentation on Hmong music and how Hmong music is the last surviving musical language in the world because the music itself mimics the language. He also makes Hmong instruments and traditional Hmong weaponry. He does a lot of work to keep the culture alive and share it.”

During the past decade, there has been a movement in the African American community to ensure that the traditional “soul food” cuisine is healthy while also pushing the boundaries of what “soul food” is.

“In the fall, we have a program with JustVeggiez and Robert Pierce,” Trevino-Murphy said. “They are going to be collaborating where Chef James is going to be doing a cooking demonstration using a seasonal menu. And he will be using vegetables from Mr. Pierce’s farm. Chef James is going to talk about the benefits of healthy eating and his journey. And then Mr. Pierce is going to be talking about food justice. I’m really excited about that collaboration. I think it is going to be really cool.”

The Ripple Project is also pushing the boundaries of what constitutes Humanities programming with several of the presentations.

“We’ll have some financial empowerment programs with Martinez White and his book Think Like a DJ,” Trevino-Murphy said. “He will be doing a program on that book. They’ll have a kids’ version of the program with a coloring book at the Dream Bus this summer. That’s going to be fun. Aracely Esparza is going to be doing a financial empowerment series as well around the book Decolonizing Wealth. That is the humanities connection there.”

And some of the projects look at the humanities through very unique ways.

“Winnie Karanja who was the founder of Madym has a new initiative or business called Represented Collective where she is screening educational products to change the culture of the STEM fields for women and particularly for women and girls of color,” Trevino-Murphy said. “She has a pueblo program called Niyra’s World where kids are going to come together and do these puzzles. There is this whole STEM component. The humanities component is about the people who are in STEM. That is what comes to mind when I think about unexpected humanities programs. She also has an exhibition in the libraries right now called The Legendary Exhibition, which is based on her deck of cards from the Represented Collective. Each card has a woman in STEM in history and her story.”

DCLS and Trevino-Murphy hope that this one year focus of Beyond the Page will create a ripple effect where people throughout Dane County will become more aware of the cultural and humanities contributions of their neighbors and have their worlds broaden as they become more aware, in a positive manner, about its diversity. Perhaps diversity of programming will become part of the fabric of every Dane County libraries humanities programming. The first pebble has been tossed.