Accommodations & Minneapolis Resources
Big Berks 2027 · Minneapolis, MN · June 10–13, 2027
All conference events will take place at the Hilton Downtown Minneapolis.
Berks Conference Direct Booking Link
Things to Do in Minneapolis
Explore dining, arts, attractions and more
Minneapolis Resources for Big Berks 2027
Compiled by Berks Secretary, Karla J. Strand
As we prepare to gather in Minneapolis, Minnesota for our 46th annual convening, we are called to think carefully about what it means to meet in this city — its layered histories, its ongoing struggles, and the communities whose lives and labor have made it what it is. Minneapolis stands on the ancestral lands of the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples, whose knowledge, leadership, and land stewardship have shaped this region for generations. It is also a city at the center of contemporary movements for racial justice and universal human rights. These histories are not separate: they are threads in a longer story of dispossession, resistance, and the fight for dignity and belonging.
We invite you to explore the curated resources below, which reflect the histories of the people and places essential to Minnesota’s past and to its ongoing work for social justice. We hope these materials deepen your engagement with the city and community that will host us in 2027.
Places
- A Bar of Their Own — “All women’s sports. All the time.”
- Birchbark Books — Owned by Louise Erdrich
- Black Garnet Books — Black-woman-owned
- Hmong Cultural Center Museum
- Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection — The largest archival repository of LGBTQ history in the Midwest
- Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center
- Moona Moono — Modern coffee shop & retail experience, Asian-American-woman-owned
- New Native Theatre — Navajo-woman-founded
- Phyllis Wheatley Community Center — Founded in 1924 as a settlement house for Black women
- The Smitten Kitten — A sex positive space where everyone is welcome
- Tandem Vintage — Queer woman-owned shop
- Twin Cities LGBTQ+ History Tours
- Urban Growler Brewing Company — First women-owned microbrewery in Minnesota
- Women’s Advocates — The first domestic violence shelter in the US
Online
- Hmong Women Achieving Together
- Hmong Women’s Action Team Oral History Project
- Hope in the Struggle: The Josie Johnson Story — Documentary
- Jessica Lopez Lyman on the History of State Violence in Minnesota — Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast
- Lavender Magazine
- LGBTQ Activism & Rights in Minnesota: An Overview
- The Minneapolis Millerettes — All-American Girls Professional Baseball team
- Minnesota Women’s Legislative Timeline — Significant Legislation Passed by the Minnesota Legislature Since Suffrage (1919–2020)
- Minnesota Women’s Press
- Out North — First-ever, full-length film to document and honor Minnesota’s LGBTQ history
- Queer Voices of Minnesota — Twin Cities-based 2SLGBTQIA+ reading and performance group
- Tretter Transgender Oral History Project
Books
- Coleman, T.J. (2024). Traveling without moving: Essays from a Black woman trying to survive in America. University of Minnesota Press.
- Erdrich, H.E. (Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe). Poetry. heiderdrich.com/books
- Erdrich, L. (Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe). Fiction. Browse works Python’s Kiss is her latest; Love Medicine and The Round House are probably the most popular. She also has a kids’ book series, The Birchbark House.
- Gibney, S. (2019). Dream country. Penguin Books.
- Holbrook, C. (2020). Tell me your names and I will testify. University of Minnesota Press.
- Holbrook, C., & Mura, D. (Eds.). (2021). We are meant to rise: Voices for justice from Minneapolis to the world. University of Minnesota Press.
- Jenkins, A., Medeiros, J., & Brimmer, L.M. (Eds.). (2019). Queer voices: Poetry, prose, and pride. Minnesota Historical Society Press.
- Johnson, J., Holbrook, C., & Little, A. (2021). Hope in the struggle: A memoir. University of Minnesota Press.
- Lopez Lyman, J. (2025). Place-keepers: Latina/x art, performance, and organizing in the Twin Cities. University of Minnesota Press.
- Phelps, M.S. (2024). The Minneapolis reckoning: Race, violence, and the politics of policing in America. Princeton University Press.
- Suarez, S.M. (forthcoming October 2026). An Ojibwe home in the city: White Earth women and community organizing in Minneapolis. University of Minnesota Press.
- Yang, K.K. (2017). The latehomecomer: A Hmong family memoir. Coffee House Press.
- Yang, K.K. (2020). Somewhere in the unknown world: A collective refugee memoir. Metropolitan Books.
Articles
- Brouwer, E. (2019, Dec. 4). Women’s Advocates has walked with survivors for 45 years. Twin Cities Public Television Originals.
- Easter, M.M. (2021, Feb. 25). Mary Moore Easter: On the page, in the world. Minnesota Women’s Press.
- Ehrenhalt, L. (2021, 2025). Over the rainbow: Queer and trans history in Minnesota. MNopedia.
- Ehrenhalt, L. (2021, Spring). Curious and romantic sensation: Sex, fraud, and celebrity in the Leon A. Belmont Case of 1880. Minnesota History, 67(5), 214–225.
- Gilman, R.R. (2011, 2025). Women in Minnesota: Weaving the web of society in the North Star State. MNopedia.
- Goetz, K.R. (2015, 2025). Women on the World War I home front. MNopedia.
- Grumdahl, D.M. (2020). The pride behind Pride. Mpls.St.Paul Magazine.
- Heller, H. (2016, 2026). Phyllis Wheatley House, Minneapolis. MNopedia.
- Holbrook, C. (2026, Feb. 3). Letter from Minnesota: We’ve been here before. Literary Hub.
- Matson-Brady, E. (n.d.). A history and guide to the Two Spirit & LGBTQ Native American community in Minneapolis. Meet Minneapolis.
- McMahon, B. (2023, 2025). Women industrial workers in the Twin Cities, 1860s–1945. MNopedia.
- Moeslein, A. (2026, Feb. 7). The women holding Minneapolis together. Glamour.
- Pha, K.P. (2021, Summer). ‘Minnesota is open to everything’: Queer Hmong and the politics of community formation in the diaspora. Minnesota History, 66(6), 255–263.
- Register, C. (2008, Summer). When women went public: Feminist reforms in the 1970s. Minnesota History, 61(2), 62–75.
- Scholten, A. (2019, 2025). Minneapolis Millerettes. MNopedia.
- Shepard, E. (2025). Women’s Advocates. MNopedia.
- Weber, E.W. (2012, 2025). Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association. MNopedia.
- Woman Suffrage Centennial [Special issue]. (2020, Fall). Minnesota History, 67(3).
- Ziebarth, M. (1971, Summer). Woman’s rights movement. Minnesota History, 42(6), 225–230.
Local Arrangements Committee
Co-Chairs
- Myrl Beam — Macalester College
- Tracey Deutsch — University of Minnesota
Committee Members
- Samira Ali — University of Minnesota
- Amber Annis — Native Governance Center
- Myra Billund-Phibbs — University of Minnesota
- Sarah Chambers — University of Minnesota
- Averill Earls — St. Olaf College
- Angelica Maier — Minnesota Historical Society
- Jennifer McCutchen — University of St. Thomas
- Rose Miron — Minnesota Historical Society
- Ayaan Natala — University of Minnesota
- Jack Norton — Normandale Community College
- Chantel Rodriguez — Minnesota Historical Society
- Rachel F. Seidman — Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum
- Susie Steinbach — Hamline University
- Amy Sullivan — Macalester College
- Melanie Yazzie — Macalester College