Tempe History Society Lunch Talks

Join us for the 2024-2025 season!

All talks are held in the Tempe History Museum's Community Room at 11:30 a.m. on the second Wednesday of the month.

Wednesday, February 12
Arizona's African American Barbers by Dallas Teat

The history of Southwestern African American barbers is a complex spiderweb of interesting stories and facts having origins in Arizona’s territorial days. Presently, some in the African American community fear the cultural influence and social atmosphere of the Black Barbershop has begun to fade. The documentary ‘Arizona’s African American Barbers’ examines the intricate relationship between barbers and the surrounding communities. Dallas asks if the customary social and cultural influence fostered by Arizona's African American Barbers continue to thrive into the 21st century?”

Dallas Teat is a documentary filmmaker. For over twenty years Dallas has visually preserved portions of Arizona’s rich African American history. His portfolio includes documentaries for the G.W. Carver Museum and Cultural Center, the Arizona Department of Health Services, and the Arizona Commission of African American Affairs. Dallas is a respected faculty member with the Film and Media Production program at Glendale Community College (GCC) in Glendale Arizona. Fifteen years ago, Dallas interviewed six of Phoenix's oldest and most iconic African American barbers, at that time, to ask how they saw their role within the community. Dallas has interviewed barbers throughout Arizona. In 2023 the Arizona Commission for the Arts awarded Dallas a grant to continue his research.

Wednesday, March 12
Tempe's Images on Stone by Amy Douglass

The Native Americans who lived in the Tempe area centuries ago left images pecked into rock outcrops as a testament to their presence. What are these images? Why were they created and what could they mean? Amy Douglass will attempt to shed light on these enigmatic images.

Amy Douglass earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Anthropology from Wellesley College and her Doctorate in Archaeology from Arizona State University. She conducted archaeological fieldwork in New York, Arizona and New Mexico. Most of her working career was spent in museums beginning in the Museum of the American Indian (now part of the Smithsonian). For 26 years, she was the Administrator of the Tempe History Museum. During her tenure, she oversaw the conversion of the original Tempe Library building into the museum, including an 8000 square foot exhibit hall, classroom, archives and research library. Twenty years later, she supervised the complete renovation of the exhibit hall and construction of a community room. Since retiring, she has volunteered for a local animal welfare organization and is a member of the board of the Tempe Historic Preservation Foundation. She also enjoys traveling overseas and expressing her creativity through various crafts.

Wednesday, April 9
The History of Okemah, Tempe's African American Community by The Okemah Community Historical Foundation

Okemah was a once-vibrant African American community in southeast Phoenix, from Broadway Rd. to the Salt River bottom, and from 32^nd St. to 48^th St. Growth in Okemah began around 1910 but decline started in the early 1960s when the neighborhood was bisected by the I-10 freeway, and the area was zoned for industrial development, driving families away. By the mid-1990s, nearly all of Okemah’s residents were gone. Today, the Okemah Foundation provides historical perspectives of the people, community infrastructure, and lifestyle that folks enjoyed when Okemah was a place called home.  

Wednesday, May 14
Arizona's Indian Music by Dr. Richard Haefer

With more than 20 different indigenous cultures living in Arizona, there is a vast range of different musical sounds varying from multiple vocal timbres and tensions to instrumental practices all performed within a variety of musical styles from traditional to modern, pop, opera, country, and rap. Examples of each will be presented and heard and discussed in this presentation.

Dr. Richard Haefer is Professor Emeritus at ASU, where he taught a variety of courses in the Music Department for 36 years. He has studied North American Indian music and Gregorian Chant for more than 50 years; Mariachi music in Mexico and in the U.S.; Mexican music --indigenous, regional, and art music; and colonial art music for 40 years. Dr. Haefer is Founder of ASU’s legendary ASU Mariachi Program and directed the program and mentored students for 25 years.

Past Lunch Talks

Con Artists in the Archives by Dr. Anita Huizar-Hernandez

The bizarre 19^th century “Peralta Land Grant” scheme in Arizona tests the limits of how ideas about race, citizenship, and national expansion are forged. Drawing from a wide variety of sources including court records, newspapers, fiction, and film, Dr. Huizar-Hernandez argues that the creation, collapse, and eventual forgetting of Reavis’s scam, forgeries, and fraud reveals the mechanisms by which narratives, real and imaginary, forge borders. 

Dr. Huizar-Hernandez’ essays have appeared in a wide variety of journals and edited volumes, and she is the author of Forging Arizona: A History of the Peralta Land Grant and Racial Identity in the West (2019). She is also part of the project team for multiple digital humanities projects, all of which focus on the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. In 2023, Dr. Anita Huizar-Hernandez received the Arizona Humanities Public Scholar award.

Emergence and Evolution: A Celebration of Tempe Architecture by Mark Vinson

From the Hohokam to Frank Lloyd Wright, the built environment of Tempe reflects the cultures and cultural aspirations of its builders and architects. Emergence and Evolution will celebrate Tempe Architecture in photographs, drawings, and descriptions.

Mark Vinson is a Registered Architect and Certified Planner with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from Arizona State University. He was the City of Tempe’s founding Historic Preservation Officer and City Architect and is now engaged in private practice as VinsonStudio PLLC.  Mark is co-author of the award-winning books And TiKo-Tu?  The Midcentury Architecture of Greater Phoenix’ East Valley and Landmark Buildings:  Arizona’s Architectural Heritage. 

Japanese American Baseball by Bill Staples, Jr.

While the story of the Negro Leagues has been well documented, few baseball fans know about the Japanese American Nisei Leagues, or of their most influential figure, Kenichi Zenimura (1900-1968). A talented player who excelled at all nine positions, Zenimura was also a respected manager and would become the Japanese American community's baseball ambassador. He worked tirelessly to promote the game at home and abroad, leading goodwill trips to Asia, helping to negotiate tours of Japan by Negro League All-Stars and Babe Ruth, and establishing a 32-team league behind the barbed wire of Arizona's Gila River Internment Camp during World War II.  Author Bill Staples, Jr. has written the first biography of the "Father of Japanese-American Baseball", Kenichi Zenimura. His presentation promises a thorough and fascinating account of Zenimura's life as presented in his award-winning book.

Tempe's Tapestry of Parks by Mark Richwine

City planners and leaders have long placed high priority in developing its parks system -- designating ample city spaces for them in its neighborhoods. Some are easily found, while others are tucked away. The 40-square-mile city has 50 parks for recreation, picnics, places to walk the dogs, enjoy water features, biking, paddle boats and more. The city council has been loquacious in naming them – and renaming some in recent years. Park names conjure memories of past civic leaders or civic groups. Hear how the network of parks was developed, how their amenities continue to be developed and why Tempe has earned national awards for setting aside these get-away places for its citizens.

Mark Richwine is the retired Tempe Parks and Recreation Director. He spent 31 years in parks management. Mark earned a B.S. degree in leisure studies from Arizona State University and later a Master of Public Administration degree there. He and brother Dirk both followed in the profession of their father, Bill Richwine, who was Maricopa County Parks & Recreation Director. First trimming trees and shrubs in city parks and later supervising summer rec programs, Mark would take on the top post in 1996, overseeing a diverse program with a system of 50 parks and numerous recreation programs. He retired in 2010. Under Mark’s leadership, Tempe twice received the national Gold Medal Award for parks excellence.  The Latrobe, Pennsylvania, native is past president of the Kiwanis Club of Tempe. His wife Adrienne is retired Tempe community services manager. They have two grown children.

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