The SEAD Project
Our project will expand our successful storytelling program to 1) offer more pathways for community engagement with Southeast Asian diaspora stories and cultural arts; 2) increase the number of people we are able to engage through our storytelling program; 3) increase public dialog and engagement with Southeast Asian stories and cultural arts. Our work will bring Southeast Asian diaspora communities together to share cultural arts and stories and to increase accessibility of community stories.
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Asneth Omare (Brooklyn Park, MN). Asneth is a Kenyan Immigrant who works in the non-profit and social service fields working on public health initiatives. |
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Al Lun (Rochester, MN) is a Chinese immigrant, former IT professional for IBM and currently is a board member of the Diversity Council and YMCA in Rochester. |
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Kieran Myles Andres Tverbakk (Minneapolis, MN) is a first-generation Mexican-Norwegian-American artist focused on visibility of BIPOC queer and trans individuals as well as creating space for Chicanx queerness.
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Laura Benson
Minnesota Humanities Center
laura@mnhum.org
651-772-4244
$850,000 the first year and $850,000 the second year are for a competitive grants program to provide grants to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of Minnesota.
The Minnesota Humanities Center must operate a competitive grants program to provide grants to programs that preserve and honor the cultural heritage of Minnesota or that provide education and student outreach on cultural diversity or to programs that empower communities to build their identity and culture. Priority must be given to grants for individuals and organizations working to create, celebrate, and teach indigenous arts and cultural activities and arts organizations and programs preserving, sharing, and educating on the arts and cultural heritage of immigrant communities in Minnesota.
The outcomes of this project are:
- More Southeast Asian community stories are shared and preserved through a community-led process.
- Southeast Asian community members will better realize their power and how to navigate systems through storytelling.
- Communities will build cross-cultural mutual understanding.
- Southeast Asian diaspora communities will be more centered in shared public narratives.
- Southeast Asian diaspora community histories, stories and cultural arts will be more centered in public art and understanding.
- Southeast Asian heritage communities will have affordable and accessible classes, language tools, and cultural arts to preserve their histories and understand their cultures; and better communicate in their heritage languages in their work, community, and family lives (primarily Hmong, Khmer, Lao, and Vietnamese).
- Educators, policymakers, healthcare workers, and other community leaders who work with predominantly Southeast Asian communities (Hmong, Khmer, Lao, and Vietnamese) will have accessible classes and language tools to learn about Southeast Asian cultures and histories, to increase their cultural competency and communication skills.
In progress