Interest Groups

Women’s early role in social change

UMRA members Vicki Gaylord and Craig Swan will share stories of their ancestors’ participation in social change movements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—and how they discovered those stories—when UMRA’s Family History Interest Group meets via Zoom on Wednesday, April 3.

Lake Nokomis hike

Let's meet on the west side of Lake Nokomis by the main beach and shelter for a 5 to 5.5 mile hike.  We will go around the north end of the lake and on to Minnehaha Falls by way of Minnehaha Parkway, returning to the start by a different route through neighborhoods around the lake.  This is an easy hike on paved walkways.  Pace will accommodate all hikers.  

Fourth Friday Book Club to meet March 22

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, a recipient of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and other awards, is the Fourth Friday Book Club’s selection for March. The setting is Appalachia in the early days of the opioid epidemic.

Book Notes | ‘The Other Einstein’

Event Date: March 15, 2024, at 2:00 PM

In 'The Other Einstein,' an historical novel about the life of Albert Einstein’s first wife, Mileva Marić, author Marie Benedict speculates that Marić contributed significantly to the papers and relativity theory that are attributed to Einstein. The book raises several questions.

Photo Club to meet March 12

“Houses of worship” will be the theme when the UMRA Photo Club meets in person at the Hennepin County branch library in St. Anthony on March. Newcomers are welcome.

Explore life above the Arctic Circle and close to home

Explore life above the Arctic Circle with Janet and Craig Swan, and closer to home with Carol Urness when UMRA’s Armchair Traveler program meets via Zoom on Wednesday, March 6.

Hike Fort Snelling State Park March 4

The UMRA Hiking Club will explore wildlife along the Mississippi River when it hikes the Pike Island Loop in Fort Snelling State Park on Monday, March 4.

Fourth Friday Book Club to read 'The Bluest Eye' by Toni Morrison

The Bluest Eye, published in 1970 and the first novel by Toni Morrison, is next up for UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club when it meets via Zoom on February 23. Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.

Book Club I to discuss E. M. Forster's masterpiece 'Howards End'

Pat Tollefson will lead the discussion of  E. M. Forster’s classic work Howard’s End when the UMRA Book Club meets on Friday, February 16.  

Photo Club February meeting

“Wallpaper” will be the theme when the UMRA Photo Club meets at 12:30 p.m., on Tuesday, February 13, in the St. Anthony branch of the Hennepin County Library, located at the east end of the shopping center at 2941 Pentagon Drive NE in St. Anthony. 

Are we Cousins?

Inspired by the unexpected discovery that a friend of 15 years was his third cousin, and by the PBS series “Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates Jr.,” Craig Swan wondered how many other cousins he might be meeting every day without realizing they were cousins.

Dale Lange

I have developed a special interest in my seventh great grandfather, Michael Pierce… Putting together the pieces of Michael’s life has been an interesting journey, even if at times complicated and confusing. I have learned to evaluate sources that tell different stories and cannot agree on what one might think are basic facts like when and where someone was born. I have learned to accept and live with these and other ambiguities.

Fourth Friday Book Club to welcome special guest Julie Schumacher

.UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club discuss Dear Committee Members with special guest and New York Times bestselling author Julie Schumacher when it meets via Zoom on January 26.

Knowing Iceland

Event Date: January 24, 2024, at 10:00 AM

For our Armchair Traveler Program on January 24, 2024, Kate Maple took us to western Iceland.  Her photos are incredible and her descriptions are informative and poetic.  She and her friend and traveling companion Michelle Schermann had an amazing experience exploring some lesser-known parts of Iceland and we had an amazing experience hearing all about it and seeing amazing pictures.

Book Notes | ‘Fox Creek’

Event Date: January 19, 2024, at 2:00 PM

Set in the Northwoods of Minnesota, 'Fox Creek,' the 19th book in the Cork O’Connor mystery series by William Kent Krueger, is about the conflict between Native and white people in the use of natural resources in both the U.S. and Canada.