The St. David's Society of Minnesota was formed to celebrate the heritage and culture of the Welsh immigrants to Minnesota. To these ends, St. David's Society members celebrate and cultivate all things Welsh - in literature, history, music, dance, art or ideas, traditional and contemporary.
Sunday, November 9, 1 - 3 pm at Merlins Rest Pub, 3601 E. Lake St., Minneapolis.
Join us to meet with old friends and new for some lively conversation and good food (and perhaps a pint or two).
Save the Date: Holiday Tea
Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, 2 - 4 pm, St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church, 2323 Como Ave., St. Paul
We will celebrate the season with poetry, songs, and a potluck of treats. More information to follow.
Well-Read Dragons Book Group
Saturday, December 6, 2025, 11:45 am - 1:00 pm on Zoom
The House of Water, by Fflur Dafydd. Hodder & Stoughton, 2025.
From a Hay Festival program note: A boundary-pushing thriller told through the lens of a lurical family drama, The House of Water is both unsettling and thought-provoking. PLacing that key in the lock was the last ordinary moment of her life. Iona returns home one evening to find her family murdered and her father missing. Her home is entirely submerged in water. An unnamed girl lies dead in her bed. As the police declare her father the main suspect, Iona is forced to confront how much she really knew about the man who raised her. Hidden in the fragments of her father's final manuscript, recovered from the flood, an unimaginable secret slowly rises to the surface. Our recomender notes this and Earthy Creatures as two of her favorite 2025 books.
The other books for 2025-26, also chosen by members:
Feb. 7: Earthly Creatures, by Stevie Davies. Honno Welsh Women’s Press, 2024
Apr. 4: How the Irish Saved Civilization, by Thomas Cahill. Doubleday, 1995
June 6: The Ladies, by Doris Grumbach. Harper Collins,1984
Aug. 1: Welsh [Plural]: Essays on the Future of Wales, edited by Darren Chetty, Grug Muse, Hanan Issa, and Iestyn Tyne. Repeater Press, 2022
Sgwrs Cymraeg, Welsh Conversation
Any learners or would-be learners welcome to any or all of these classes. ALL held via Zoom, on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays from 10:30am - 12:30pm. Contact conversation facilitator: Laurel Bradshaw, llawryf@yahoo.com for Zoom link and more information.
Interviews of Society Members
Our First Member Interview: Ellis Jones! On November 1, 2021, one of our board members, Hywel Roberts, interviewed our long-time member and past president, Ellis Jones. Click hereto read the transcript of the interview. We will eventually create a video of excerpts from this and future interviews.
Laurel Bradshaw: in March of 2025, Mary Morris Mergenthal interviewed Laurel about how she learned Welsh and became a Welsh dance instructor. Read her responses here.
Did you know the on-line game Wordle was invented by a Welshman? Read about his story here.
Today's Harlech: Our member Ryan Evans has produced a recording of Welsh-Minnesotans singing the folk song Tros Y Garreg (Over the Stone) set to his original electronic music accompaniment. He has also created a website with this music and stories and poems written by and read by our members about their Welsh heritage. (Click on the title above to get to the website.)
History of Wales links: Scott Lloyd, one of our Welsh speakers over Zoom,has generously shared many links to learn abour Welsh history and ancient sites.
Contact us at mailto:stdavidsofmn@gmail.com or visit and "like" our Facebook page to learn more about the Welsh and Wales at local, national, and international levels: Go to facebook
