Laomerica 50
A project to build capacity for poets to actively document and correct historical gaps in the Lao Minnesotan journey as we approach 50 years in the US. The project will include interdisciplinary exhibits and performances giving traditional artists a chance to develop new work with Lao poets that address ancient and modern history, myth, and cultural traditions, additionally publishing innovative and experimental collections on the Lao experience.
2022-2023 Cultural Heritage and Community Identity Grants - Spring 2022
50 to 100+ interviews conducted with MN-based Lao families with 20-30+ artworks created with others in process of completion after the grant period.
3 physical exhibits (or in the event of another pandemic or MN-specific emergency, online festival) in 3 cities. Tentatively the Twin Cities, Farmington and Warroad, with ideal attendance overall realistically between 500-1,000+ based on previous efforts, but challenged by recent current events and attempting to innovate in historically underserved areas that do not have a history of programming for Lao Minnesotans.
Online exhibit of final results and in-progress works, along with community responses.
Physical copy of book of final poems and artworks for program participants and key humanities stakeholders and community organizations.
From November to January, we identified and contacted over 127 MN-based Lao families and did initial interviews to gather ideas on what stories were possible to share with the community. We then identified community members to conduct more in-depth interviews that would representing many of the unique experiences we wanted to spotlight with this project, resulting in a final exhibit set of 33 new poems that were able to be presented in coordination with over 70 archival objects relevant to our diaspora.
While originally we planned for 3 physical exhibits (or in the event of another pandemic or MN-specific emergency, online festival) community concerns obliged us to convene partial implementations at the Lao Center of Minnesota, the Lao Advancement Organization and the Forest Lake and Warroad communities. The primary concern came from recent elder-service programs where potentially having a high-number of strangers passing in and out of the shared common community space was a bit more high-risk with their recently expanded client rolls. There was also concern regarding the safety of many of the items we'd planned to display. Initial testing in the community spaces resulted in a few items being "borrowed" in a way that we had to revise some of our thinking on this matter. We scaled back with softer promotion and refocused on more online performances and presentations, in addition to socially-distanced pop-up shows. The online exhibit received excellent feedback and results, but current conversations are also looking for ways to improve presentation and to retool some poems to address a variety of post-exhibit questions that emerged.
The exciting news is that we have since secured the Minneapolis Central Library Cargill Gallery Space to present the exhibit in Summer 2024, with initial interest expressed by the Hennepin County Historical Museum for an exhibit in December 2025 so that more of these pieces can be seen by the public.
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