Hmong Cultural Center re-launches education website

ST. PAUL (Oct. 31, 2012) — Hmong Cultural Center has re-launched its unique Learn about Hmong website at www.learnabouthmong.net. Learn about Hmong is a multicultural arts education website devoted to teaching about the Hmong experience for the purposes of promoting cross-cultural awareness and understanding.

Learn about Hmong is also intended to provide greater exposure to the Hmong folk arts tradition. Learn about Hmong uses embedded online video and other multimedia technologies to teach about Hmong cultural arts and the Hmong people.

The Learn about Hmong website includes a Folk Arts Videos page with videos of Hmong folk arts performances on the Qeej instrument, the Ncas instrument, the Hmong flute, the Hmong Plooj (leaflet), the Hmong flute and the Hmong Two-String Violin. The site also includes video performances of the canon of Hmong funeral and marriage songs.

Hmong embroidery techniques and the Hmong New Year’s festival are the focus of additional videos. The website also includes substantive educational powerpoints about Hmong culture and history. Included on the site are Hmong Cultural Center’s updated Hmong 101 presentation, a Hmong Cultural Artifacts presentation, a Hmong Folk Arts presentation, and a Hmong Historical Figures presentation.

Partial funding for the website between 2004-2012 was provided by the COMPAS/3M Award for Innovation in the Arts Program, the Saint Paul Foundation Asian Pacific Endowment and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Learn about Hmong website was created as a project of the Hmong Cultural Center in Saint Paul, Minn. The staff of the Hmong Cultural Center as well as Mitch Lee of the Hmong Broadcasting Company (HBCTV) and Dr. Mark E. Pfeifer have been partners in the development of the content on the website over the past eight years.

The Learn about Hmong website is part of a series of ongoing programming initiatives the Hmong Cultural Center is engaging in to promote education about Hmong history and culture both on the internet and at the Hmong Cultural Center’s offices in Saint Paul.

These initiatives include the Hmong Resource Library (www.hmonglibrary.org), a virtual Hmong textiles museum (www.Hmongembroidery.org) in partnership with the Hmong Archives, the Building Bridges program of Hmong 101 presentations to schools and employers, as well as Qeej, Dance and Marriage and Funeral Song classes open to the community.

In addition, over the next several months, Hmong Cultural Center will continue to expand its online educational programming as it extends the outreach of its Building Bridges multicultural education program for the first time to Greater Minnesota and other states including Wisconsin, California and North Carolina utilizing webinar technology. To learn more about the Hmong Cultural Center visit www.hmongcc.org./

Founded in 1992, Hmong Cultural Center’s mission is to promote the personal development of children, youth, and adults through Hmong cultural education while providing resources that enhance cross-cultural awareness and understanding between Hmong and non-Hmong persons. In early 2012, HCC earned “Meets Standards” Status from the Charities Review Council.

The center’s website is at www.hmongcc.org/. The community is very welcome to visit HCC and enroll in our programs. To learn more about programs at Hmong Cultural Center call 651-917-9937 or stop by the center at 995 University Avenue, Suite 214 in Saint Paul.