What: Museum of Work & Culture’s 2026 Valley Talks Series [FREE + HYBRID]
When: Alternating Sundays, January 11 - March 22, 1:30 p.m.
Where: The Museum of Work & Culture (42 S. Main St., Woonsocket, Rhode Island, 02985) and Online
Museum of Work & Culture’s Valley Talks Series Returns in 2026
(WOONSOCKET, R.I.) – The Museum of Work & Culture, a Rhode Island Historical Society Museum, will host its annual Valley Talks series featuring six free lectures celebrating the Blackstone Valley's history beginning Sunday, January 11, at 1:30 pm. This year, as in previous years, all Valley Talks will be presented in a hybrid format, allowing guests to join the speaker in person at the Museum or online via Zoom. Talks will include:
Sunday, January 11, 1:30 pm – Looking Back 50 Years: 1976 and the Bicentennial Celebration in Woonsocket – This panel discussion, hosted by former Lieutenant Governor and Woonsocket native Roger Begin, will feature highlights and changes that took place in Woonsocket in 1976. Developed in collaboration with Woonsocket Call reporter Joe Nadeau, the program will be augmented with scanned negatives from the photo archive of the Woonsocket Call, now property of the Rhode Island Historical Society. This program will reflect on the state of the city 50 years ago, the ways in which it celebrated the Bicentennial, and how it has changed since then.
Sunday, January 25, 1:30 p.m. – Remembering Through Resilience and Grief with Vimala Phongsavanh – The Heart of Wattayai by Vimala Phongsavanh is an exhibit of photographs and family keepsakes that traces one family’s story of loss, strength, and migration—from a village in Laos to the mill towns of Rhode Island. Centered on Phongsavanh’s grandmother, Khamhoth, the exhibit honors her quiet courage through war, displacement, and rebuilding a new life in America. It also uplifts the collective resilience of Woonsocket’s immigrant families and confronts a history often forgotten: the Secret War in Laos. Join Phongsavanh as she discusses the exhibit, which will be on display in the Museum’s Landmark Medical Center changing gallery from January 9 to February 28.
Sunday, February 8, 1:30 p.m. – Moving Images: The Bicentennial in Motion with Dr. Morgan Grefe – Folks may know that the Rhode Island Historical Society has an amazing collection of manuscripts, maps, photographs, and objects, but did you know it has more than 9 million feet of film? The Moving Image and Audio Collection includes news footage, B-roll, and even home movies. Join RIHS Executive Director C. Morgan Grefe as she shares collection clips from 1976 and hear and see how Rhode Island marked the Bicentennial throughout the state.
Sunday, February 22, 1:30 p.m. – Nathanael Greene – Forgotten Hero of the American Revolution with Paul Bourget – How did a native Rhode Island merchant, ironmaster, fervent patriot, and devout Quaker rise in prominence from a lowly private to a general in the Continental Army? Paul Bourget, as General George Sears Greene, will discuss the life and times of his second cousin, Nathanael Greene, and how he became George Washington’s best and most reliable general in the War of Independence.
Sunday, March 8, 1:30 p.m. – Rewoven: The Rise, Fall, and Future of American
Textiles with artist Deborah Baronas – At the end of the twentieth century, textile mill closures transformed communities across the United States and beyond. Rewoven, an exhibit by Deborah Baronas, explores this industrial rise and decline through art, film, history, and personal narratives that tell the stories of workers, families, and communities shaped by textile production—and what remains after its loss. Accompanied by the documentary Evolutionary Threads, Rewoven examines how innovation, adaptation, and sustainability are redefining the future of textiles. Through themes of labor, resilience, and renewal, Rewoven invites audiences to consider how the threads of the past continue to shape the fabric of our shared future. Join Baronas as she discusses her exhibit, which will be on display in the museum's Landmark Medical Center Gallery from March 6 to May 16.
Sunday, March 22, 1:30 p.m. – Disparate Regimes of Citizenship Rights and Rhode Island History with author Brendan Shanahan – The political and economic rights of noncitizen immigrants in the United States varied greatly on a state-by-state basis in the century between the Civil War and the Civil Rights era. In his book Disparate Regimes: Nativist Politics, Alienage Law, and Citizenship Rights in the United States, 1865–1965, author Brendan Shanahan argues that the proliferation of these debates and laws produced disparate regimes of citizenship rights in the American political economy on a state-by-state basis. It further illustrates how nativist state politics and alienage policies helped to invent and concretize the idea that citizenship rights meant citizen-only rights in law, practice, and popular perception in the United States.
Admission to Valley Talks is free, but registration is required. Guests can register online at rihs.simpletix.com.
The Museum’s 2026 Valley Talks series is presented by the Museum of Work & Culture Preservation Foundation and the RI AFL-CIO.
