An Evening with Kao Kalia Yang & Bee Yang - NEA Big Read, St. Croix Valley

Gather outdoors with us at Carpenter Nature Center for an in-person appearance of Hmong storytelling with author Kao Kalia Yang. Her father, Bee Yang, will open and close the evening with song poetry of kwv txhiaj, adding another layer to the poignant accounts of the Hmong from the mountains of Laos, through the refugee camps of Thailand and to new struggles in the United States. Kalia credits her father as one of her most important literary influences. She writes, “Your songs, sung and unsung, guide me in each story I encounter.”

Enhance your experience with a take-home kit of comforting and lively flavors from the kitchen of Chef Yia Vang. Chef Vang uses food to tell a story and believes that every dish has a narrative. Pre-order a meal kit ($85 meal for two) for post-presentation pick-up. The Meal Kit can be refrigerated overnight and heated at home the next day. Options include:

• Hilltribe Grilled Chicken Thigh with Lemongrass Scallion Ginger Sauce or
• Hmong BBQ Pork with Tiger Bite Hot Sauce
• both with Ginger Glazed Carrot, Khao Sen (noodle salad), Pickled veggies, Purple sticky rice - banana leaf, Pineapple Pound Cake with Tamarind Caramel and Toasted Coconut. YUM!!

Admission to this rain or shine event is free, but registration is required. In order to safely enjoy the show, registration is limited and visitors are asked to practice social distancing. Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-with-kao-kalia-yang-bee-yang-nea-big-read-st-croix-valley-tickets-149583972689

An American Sign Language interpreter and Hmong translation will be provided for this event.

Kao Kalia Yang is recognized as a natural storyteller with multidimensional standing as a Hmong writer, Minnesota author and American contributor to world literature. The Latehomecomer won Minnesota Book Awards for memoir/creative nonfiction as well as the Reader’s Choice Award – the first book to ever win two awards in the same year. The book was also finalist for a PEN USA Literary Center Award, an Asian American Literary Award, and remains a bestselling title for Coffee House Press. The Song Poet is the winner of the 2017 MN Book Award in Creative Nonfiction/Memoir and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Chautauqua Prize, a PEN USA Literary Award, and the Dayton’s Literary Peace Prize. Her children’s book, A Map Into the World, received a Charlotte Zolotow Award Honor for outstanding writing in a picture book.

Bee Yang sings the story of his people, their history and tragedies, joys and losses. He is the recipient of a MN State Arts Board grant for Folk and Traditional Arts, a Pollen 50 Over 50 Award, and winner of the Sally Award for the Arts in Initiative.

This event is offered as part of ArtReach St. Croix’s NEA Big Read in the St. Croix Valley. We encourage you to join your St. Croix Valley neighbors in reading THE LATEHOMECOMER by Kao Kalia Yang. In June 2021, we will celebrate the arts with activities related to themes found in the book. More information is available at https://www.valleyreads.org. See www.arts.gov/national-initiatives/nea-big-read/latehomecomer for reader resources and discussion questions.

NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. NEA Big Read in the St. Croix Valley is presented by ArtReach St. Croix in conjunction with core program partners including Valley Bookseller, Marine Mills Folk School, Twin Cities PBS (TPT), Stillwater Public library and other library branches located between St. Croix Falls, WI, and Hastings, MN.