A Visit To Hmongtown Marketplace and The Hmong Cultural Center Museum and Library
Pre-Work
Prior to engaging in the professional development, we ask that you take some time to engage with the following materials. We will be using them as a shared foundation and a lens through which to engage with the experience.
- “Meet the King of St. Paul’s Hmongtown” Mpls-St Paul Magazine (Nov 30, 2018)
- Finding Minnesota: Hmongtown Marketplace (video 3:04)
- Minnesota Hmong Farmers – America’s Heartland (video 5:13)
- Hmong Cultural Center and Research Library
- Kao Kalia Yang’s “The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir” (video 9:20)
Kao Kalia Yang visited Blake as the 2019 Class of ‘55 Speaker. This might be a good introduction or refresher. For those of you interested in reading more, you might wish to find and read her new children’s picture book is A Map of the World or her 2017 memoir of her father The Song Poet.
Experience Full
This experience provides an opportunity to learn about Hmong history and experience Hmong culture. We will visit the Hmongtown Marketplace and meet founder Toua Xiong who will share the story of his journey from being a young boy in Laos to a refugee in St. Paul to “The King of Hmongtown!” Toua will then take us on a tour of the market and we will eat lunch in the food court.
Next, we will visit the new Hmong Cultural Center Museum and Library to learn more about the Hmong experience in the U.S. over the past 25 years. The exhibits currently on display at the museum are “Hmong Minnesota: Yesterday and Today,” “The Hmong Folk Arts Experience: Interactive Exhibit,” and “Hmong Cultural Artifacts Drawings by [Blake’s very own MS Art Teacher] Seexeng Lee.” We’ll visit the Hmong Resource Center which provides community services like language courses, employment services, and citizenship classes, along with seminars and online courses on Hmong history and culture. Lastly, we will tour the Hmong Resource Center Library, the site of the most comprehensive collection of Hmong-related literature, scholarly research, and multimedia materials in North America.
- What should we know about our Hmong neighbors?
- How does the Hmong community continue to pass on its history and culture while building a new home in Minnesota?
Facilitator(s):
Toua Xiong (Marketplace)
Txongpao Lee or Mark E. Pfeifer (Cultural Center)
Location:
Hmongtown Marketplace– 217 Como Ave, St Paul, MN 55103
Hmong Cultural Center & Research Library 375 University Avenue, Suite 204, Saint Paul, MN 55103.