Reflections of Manatee presents: "The Battle for Freedom: United States Colored Troops and the Occupation of Manatee," an event and exhibit that turns the focus of the Civil War as experiences in Confederate Manatee away from the enslavers and onto the free men of the United States Colored Troops that occupied the town, as well as the enslaved, some of whom used the opportunity to seek their own freedom. The

Merfolk Media Alliance, in collaboration with the African American Heritage Association Community Conversations, presents a screening of Underground History and discussion moderated by Ms. Gwendolyn Reese, President of African American Heritage Association of St. Petersburg. Underground History is a documentary film designed to explore connections between St. Petersburg's diverse cultural history and emerging community efforts to acknowledge the past in charting the future. The documentary considers the links between the

Florida's schoolchildren chose the panther as the state animal, and a decade later it nearly went extinct. But a ragtag band-some scientists, a veterinarian, and a veteran hunter-banded together to pull off a risky experiment to save them. Craig Pittman is a native Floridian. Born in Pensacola, he graduated from Troy State University in Alabama, where his muckraking work for the student paper prompted an agitated dean to label him

Some people regard Florida as nothing but the Punchline State because so many weird things happen here. Craig Pittman argues that is also the greatest state with the greatest impact on other states. In this presentation based on his hilarious and thought-provoking New York Times bestselling book Oh Florida!, Mr. Pittman explains how what he calls "The Most Interesting State" got to be the way it is. Craig Pittman is