remembering our past.
creating our future.
The Rondo Center of Diverse Expression (RCODE) is a non-profit based in Saint Paul, MN. In coordination with the Rondo Commemorative Plaza (RCP), our location offers a unique venue for events, houses the Rondo Research Collection, and includes a small museum for the display of art and artifacts interpreting the Rondo experience. We host events throughout the year, including an annual Juneteenth celebration, the Jazz at the Plaza series (in partnership with Jazz Access), opportunities to engage with art and culture, and an annual celebration of Engraved Brick purchasers.
Goals:
1) To celebrate history, cultural creativity, and the importance of the arts,
2) to inspire diverse people to find common ground in the Rondo corridor, and
3) to bring people together to build a trusting, robust, and engaging neighborhood.
Mission:
To preserve the spirit of Rondo.
Rondo plaza
RCODE has administrative and operational responsibility for the Rondo Commemorative Plaza (RCP). This is a public space to honor the past and celebrate the future of Saint Paul’s first African American neighborhood. Located at the corner of Fisk Avenue and Rondo Avenue in what is now the Summit-University neighborhood, the Plaza repurposes a vacant 130’ by 42’ lot with greenspace, benches, a stage, and 23 history panels where visitors can learn how much the City of Saint Paul and the State of Minnesota have been improved, changed, challenged, and make better by the African American experience of Rondo. Visitors to the history walk should take note of the engraved bricks honoring Rondo under their feet.
Ongoing Programs
A collection of stories about the community of Rondo, created during several History Harvests with students at Macalester College. To learn more about this website and its creation, read Harvesting History, Remembering Rondo.
A comprehensive collection of fiction and non-fiction, published and unpublished books, journals, articles, studies, essays, poems, programs, photographs, maps, posters, films, video tapes and other media items where the main topic concerns, describes, illustrates analyzes or interprets the history, development, lost, present circumstances, and future of the Rondo neighborhood. Some parts of the collection are available to view digitally at the Minnesota Digital Library.
An annual acknowledgement of people, organizations, activities, or services that have celebrated an accomplishment deserving of community recognition.
Anyone is welcome to purchase an engraved brick to be installed along the plaza’s history walk. Bricks can commemorate an address, a family member or friend, a memory, a business, or anything else held near and dear.
Pictured: Eugene Barringer, Elizabeth Gullickson, Marvin Anderson, & Henry Combs admiring their bricks.
Annual Events
Juneteenth Celebration
An annual celebration on June 19th, celebrating the same day in 1865 when a group of enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas learned of their freedom, almost two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Each year, RCODE remembers June 19th, 1865 with speakers, music, food, exhibitors, and the announcement of the Rondo Achievement Awards.
Photo is from Scott Takushi with Pioneer Press.
‘Every Brick Counts’ Ceremony
An annual celebration held in September, honoring those who purchase bricks to be installed along RCP’s history walk. The program includes music, refreshments, speeches, and good company! To see a video of last year’s ceremony, please visit our Youtube page.
Jazz at the PLaza series
In partnership with Jazz Access, RCODE hosts early evening jazz shows throughout the summer at the Rondo Commemorative Plaza. Jazz at Rondo Plaza offers outdoor jazz complete with seating, tables, and a professional sound system. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Photo is from Jazz Access. For more information, click here.