SERIES DESCRIPTION

Lao American artist Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay and the East Side Freedom Library brings you the SPOOKY STORIES TO SCARE THE COVID-19 AWAY, a 6-video series! To kick off Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we are bringing you ghoulish tales from the Asian diaspora told by six APIA artists 신 선 영 Sun Yung Shin, Ka Vang, May Lee-Yang, Naomi Ko, Eric Sharp, and Daniel P. Tran. 

Stories will be posted on May 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, and 27.

This evening’s featured artist: May Lee-Yang

ABOUT ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. The term “Asian Pacific” encompasses all of the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants (Library of Congress). 

A BRIEF TIMELINE OF HOW APA HERITAGE WEEK BECAME APA HERITAGE MONTH! 

June 30, 1977
Rep. Frank Horton of New York introduced House Joint Resolution 540 to proclaim the first ten days in May as Pacific/Asian American Heritage Week; it did not pass

July 19, 1977
Senator Daniel Inouye introduced a similar resolution, Senate Joint Resolution 72; it did not pass

June 19, 1978
Rep. Horton introduced House Joint Resolution 1007, which proposed that the first ten days in May of 1979 be ‘Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week; it passed

October 5, 1978
President Jimmy Carter signed the joint resolution to become Public Law 95-419

1980-1989
Presidents passed annual proclamations for Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week

May 9, 1990
Congress passed Public Law 101-283 which expanded the observance to a month for 1990

October 23, 1992
Congress passed Public Law 102-450 which annually designated May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month

To learn more about Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, visit https://asianpacificheritage.gov/about/

ARTIST BIOS

신 선 영 Sun Yung Shin was born in Seoul, Korea, during 박 정 희 Park Chung-hee’s military dictatorship, and grew up in the Chicago area. She is the editor of the best-selling anthology A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota, author of poetry collections Unbearable Splendor (finalist for the 2017 PEN USA Literary Award for Poetry, winner of the 2016 Minnesota Book Award for poetry); Rough, and Savage; and Skirt Full of Black(winner of the 2007 Asian American Literary Award for poetry), co-editor of Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption, and author of bilingual illustrated book for children Cooper’s Lesson. She lives in Minneapolis where she co-directs the community organization Poetry Asylum with poet Su Hwang. https://www.sunyungshin.com/sun_yung_shin/bio.html

Ka Vang is a Hmong American writer in the United States. Vang was born on a CIA military base, Long Cheng, Laos, at the end of the Vietnam War, and immigrated to America in 1980. A fiction writer, poet, playwright, and former journalist, Vang has devoted much of her professional life to capturing Hmong folktales on paper. She is a recipient of the Archibald Bush Artist Fellowship and several other artistic and leadership awards. She is the author of the children’s book, Shoua and the Northern Lights Dragon, a finalist for the 23rd Annual Midwest Book Awards in 2012.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ka_Vang

May Lee-Yang is a writer, performer, and teacher. Her theater-based works include The Korean Drama Addict’s Guide to Losing Your Virginity, Confessions of a Lazy Hmong Woman, Ten Reasons Why I’d Be a Bad Porn Star, and others.  Her work has been supported the Playwright Center McKnight Fellowship, the Jerome Foundation, the National Performance Network, the Bush Leadership Fellowship, the National Performance Network, the MN State Arts Board, and the Loft Literary Center. She is currently finishing her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota.
http://lazyhmongwoman.com/about

Naomi Ko is a filmmaker, writer, actor, and cultural producer. Her independent pilot, “Nice,” was an official selection at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and she won Best Actress for her performance at the 2019 SeriesFest. She is a Moth StorySLAM winner and played Sungmi in the 2014 award-winning feature film “Dear White People.” Naomi’s writing and performance is featured on “The Mortified Guide,” now available on Netflix. Naomi is the co-founder Asian Pacific Islander American Minnesotan Film Collective, a former 2017 McKnight Media Arts Fellow, and a current Jerome Hill Artist Fellow. http://www.konaomi.com/

Daniel P. Tran is a queer Vietnamese-American writer of mixed genres and co-founder of Asian American Literary Collective in Minnesota. His heavy STEM background allows a fusion of science and math into his writing offering a unique perspective on how art is understood. Recent appearances include a feature interview on ‘Street Genius Radio’ 98.9 FM March 2019, and a public reading at the St. Paul capitol for the Freedom to Drive Coalition with support from Mayor Melvin Carter held by Asian American Organizing Project and various organizations as a collaboration in April 2019.

Eric Sharp is a multidisciplinary theatre artist based in Minneapolis. He has appeared on stage at the Guthrie Theater, Ten Thousand Things, The Jungle Theater, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, and the Toronto and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. Eric currently serves on the Artistic Advisory Committee at Theater Mu, where he wrote and starred in the world premiere of Middle Brother and was seen in Hot Asian Doctor Husband, Two Mile Hollow, Twelfth Night and many more. He directs and teaches for Mu Explorations, COMPAS, and Penumbra Theatre’s Summer Institute.
www.WorkSharp.org 

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay is a Lao writer. CNN’s “United Shades of America” host W. Kamau Bell called her work “revolutionary.” Governor Mark Dayton recognized her with a “Lao Artists Heritage Month” Proclamation. She’s a recipient of a Sally Award for Initiative from the Ordway Center for Performing Arts which “recognizes bold new steps and strategic leadership undertaken by an individual…in creating projects or artistic programs never before seen in Minnesota that will have a significant impact on strengthening Minnesota’s artistic/cultural community.” Her plays have been presented by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, Theater Mu, and elsewhere. She’s received grants from the Jerome Foundation, Bush Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Playwrights’ Center, Forecast Public Art, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, MN State Arts Board, and elsewhere.  www.saymoukdatherefugenius.com 

This activity is funded by the Cultural STAR grant.