The California History Center and Euphrat Museum of Art fundraised money to sustain their programs in a “Taste of History” speaker event on Feb. 4.

“We were doing well before the pandemic,” said Diana Argabrite, museum program coordinator. “But that money will certainly run out at some point.”

Argabrite said she is confident the event, the second of the virtual four-part series, will raise enough money to fund new programs and art events for kids to participate in after the pandemic.

Themed “Dreaming and Imagining,” the event featured five guest speakers composed of activists, cultural curators and community caretakers. They discussed ways they remain connected to their ancestral and cultural backgrounds and how to learn from the past to create a better future.

Melissa-Ann Nievera-Lozano, co-editor of the Pilipinx Radical Imagination Reader, said people can use stories to overcome communal pain, fueled recently by COVID-19 and campaigns for racial justice.

“Our future together is waiting to be birthed through the simple telling of our stories,” Nievera-Lozano said. “The way our stories can connect our humanity … we will find a way.”

Nievera-Lozano added that pain and grief embraced properly can improve the future.

This vision of the future is based on dreams. Jennifer Alvarez, founder of DreamYOU University, spoke further about the power of dreaming.

“When you’re in your mother’s womb, you are dreaming of who you would become,” Alvarez says. “We are rhythm people. We are born under the rhythm of our mother’s heartbeat.”

Alvarez led the audience through a guided experience, in which she beat a drum to symbolize a heartbeat and taught the audience ways to have positive thoughts while dreaming.

The next event in the Taste of History series will be held in May and you can donate to the California History Center and Euphrat Museum of Art here.