RONDO CENTER OF DIVERSE EXPRESSION

We were instrumental in the formation of the effort to rename Concordia Avenue to Rondo Avenue to right a sixty plus year wrong that occurred when the Saint Paul City Council removed the name of Rondo without adhering to proper city procedure. Well over 200 hundred people joined the St. Paul Mayor, members of the St. Paul City Council, and other dignitaries at the Rondo Commemorative Plaza for the unveiling of the new Rondo Avenue street signs and installation of the street sign at the Plaza. On June 19th, we held the 4th Annual Juneteenth Celebration highlighting the Music of Rondo with performances from Walker|West Music Academy and over 300 visitors. The Rondo Community Coalition held the 2nd Annual Rondo Block Party at the Plaza on August 3rd, featuring dozens of vendors, local organizations, activities, and food trucks. In August, neighbors used the Rondo Center Community Gardens to gather for National Night Out. In partnership with JazzAccess, we jammed to two Jazz at the Plaza August evening performances.As in past years, there was a steady increase of visitors to the Rondo Center of Diverse Expressions and the Rondo Commemorative Plaza from an expanding spectrum of users. We hosted a group of 3rd-5th grade students to a group of over 30 participants attending a seminar introducing the ABCs of Artificial Intelligence with a former Rondo Native and Responsible AI Expert. We remain extremely grateful to the organizations, businesses, and individuals that have partnered with RCODE and RCP to fund and organize the wide variety of events and activities we host each year. Our main accomplishment was the launch of RCODE's new Minnesota Digital Library page with 32 downloadable materials, including Rondo Days souvenir books, photo albums, progarms, information about the Commemorative Plaza, maps of the old Rondo neighborhood. Two new primary source sets are available on the MDL website, Rondo:Before the Highway and Rondo: During and After the Highway. These sets feature a topic overview, ten to twenty primary sources from the MDL collection, links to related resources, discussion questions and classroom activities.