When Mai Neng Moua decides to get married, her mother, a widow, wants the groom to follow Hmong custom and pay a bride price, which both honors the work the bride’s family has done in raising a daughter and offers a promise of love and security from the groom’s family. Mai Neng, who knows the pain this tradition has caused, says no. Her husband-to-be supports her choice.
What happens next is devastating, and it raises questions about the very meaning of being Hmong in America…(read more here)
Hosted by the Center for Hmong Studies and MNHS Press. Free and open to the public. Book signing and sales to follow. For more information visit www.mnhs.org/calendar
Jen Weir is a taiko percussionist, composer, and the dynamic Artistic Director of Mu Daiko. To celebrate the 20 year anniversary of Mu Daiko, Jen will give a talk on the 2000+ year-old art form, its incomparable sound and role in Japanese/Japanese American cultural expression, and her vision for Mu Daiko in the next 20 years. Bring your lunch and come join us!
April 18
The Eighth Annual Pankake Poetry Reading featuring Bao Phi – spoken word artist, writer, and visionary activist who seeks to build community through the arts – who will read from his 2017 book of poetry, Thousand Star Hotel. Reception and author signing to follow with books available for purchase courtesy of the University of Minnesota Bookstore. Please RSVP by April 11.
How did the daughter of a provincial governor and the daughter of a buffalo-riding gangster become BFFs? The Friendship Play is a comedy-turned accidental musical about real-life BFFs May Lee-Yang (a Hmong refugee) and Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay (a Lao refugee). Set to the backdrop of karaoke music and Little House on the Prairie fantasies, Lee-Yang and Vongsay hack their way through stories about refugee life, American pop culture, and empowering their brethren through the Hot Asian Man project. This performance is part of the Power and Privilege Series sponsored by the University of Minnesota’s Office of Student Affairs. Free.
What does it mean to be an American revolutionary today? Grace Lee Boggs is a 98-year-old Chinese American woman in Detroit whose vision of revolution will surprise you. A writer, activist, and philosopher rooted for more than 70 years in the African American movement, she has devoted her life to an evolving revolution that encompasses the contradictions of America’s past and its potentially radical future.
Guthrie Theater
818 South 2nd Street, Minneapolis, MN 55415
Celebrate 20 years of Mu Daiko with guest artists from Japan, Canada and the U.S. Daytime activities are free to the public. Headlining the festival is Mu Daiko’s 20th Anniversary Concert featuring an amazing roster of guest artists, Mu Daiko favorites, and world premiere pieces.
A limited number of special VIP tickets include a pre-show reception with guest artists and preferred seating. All other seating will be general seating only.Tickets ($20 students, $40 adult, $60 VIP) can be purchased here.
On Feb. 19, 1942, with a frightened nation still reeling from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor two months earlier, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which led to the forced removal of almost 120,000 Japanese Americans to incarceration camps during World War II. Two-thirds of them were native-born American citizens who were given but a few days to settle their financial affairs and report for relocation to desolate incarceration camps away from the West Coast.
Exhibition Dates: May 27 – October 28, 2017
267 19th Avenue South, 214 Social Sciences Building, Minneapolis, MN 55455
For information visit http://www.aas.umn.edu or on FACEBOOK.
