10 Years of Yellow Rage!

Catzie Vilayphonh and Michelle Meyers celebrate 10 years of Yellow Rage on Fri, Nov 19 at 7:30pm at the Asian Arts Initiative.

That's during their Family Style open mic, except in November, there will be no open mic. Instead, they're putting together a showcase of amazing artists who will come to Philly and reminisce/celebrate with them.

In addition to being their 10 year anniversary show, Nov 19th will also be a fundraiser for the Fong Lee family. As some of you may know/remember, over the past year, organizers in Minneapolis/St. Paul have been working tirelessly to mobilize around the Lee family as they pursue justice. Fong was a Hmong youth who was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Jason Andersen. Andersen was later acquitted of his murder although the evidence appeared to indicate that some shady handling of the crime scene took place, that the incident was misrepresented in court testimony, and that discriminatory and prejudicial information was highlighted throughout the case.

Place | Value, a TalkingImageConnection Reading.

Join writers Barrie Jean Borich, Tim Nolan, Lynette Reini-Grandell, Christian Villarroel, Saymoukda Vongsay and Lori Young-Williams read poems and stories about diverse notions of place inspired by A Theory of Values, at the 2010 Soap Factory Biennial, curated by Scott Stulen and Kris Douglas. It's a great line-up of Minnesota writers. Be sure to check it out! 


The show begins at 8 PM.

Free Admission.  The Soap Factory is located at 514 2nd Street SE Minneapolis.

For more information contact 612-623-9176 or yackmor@talkimage.org

TalkingImageConnection is an organization that brings together writers, contemporary visual art and new audiences in art galleries around the Twin Cities.  

Refugee Nation Coming to Minneapolis!

REFUGEE NATION: Co-presented with Pangea World Theater
October 8-17, 2010, Based on the stories of Laotian Refugess in the U.S.
Written and Performed by LEILANI CHAN & OVA SAOPENG
Intermedia Arts

A mother lives alone in the darkness. A father struggles to forget a lost war. A son battles in the streets of urban America. A daughter searches for answers in her community. Refugee Nation is about a young generation struggling to understand their history and the silence of an elder generation still healing from the traumas war. What can we learn from the wounds of a war over 30 years ago in the hope to find healing?

Refugee Nation tells the stories of a community created by a U.S. led secret war in Laos. Intricately connected to the Vietnam War, Laotian refugees struggle to create a future as their American descendants struggle to understand their past.

Since 2005, collaborators Leilani Chan and Ova Saopeng have been collecting oral histories from family and community members across the country to create an interdisciplinary theater performance that explores a growing part of the Asian American Diaspora that is yet to be included as part of the American experience.

Through theater and movement they re-construct the stories of families trying to rebuild a community that has been spread like ashes across the U.S. and the world.

More than just a telling of Laotian American history, the two-person performance eloquently touches upon issues relating to the refugee experience, assimilation, generation gap, and mental health using drama, film, music, and audience interaction, and personalizes these issues through a genuine Laotian American perspective.

The result is a product that not only brings to light the hidden stories of Laotian Americans around the U.S., but one that is able to unite people from all types of backgrounds, ethnicities, and histories by relaying the ideas of change, loss, struggle, healing, and the unrelenting strength of the human spirit.