Success!!!

REFUGEE NATION @ La Peña Cultural Center was a success! Thanks to the hard work of the La Peña staff and Laotian community organizers, we filled the house! Opening night was SOLD OUT! They had to pull chairs out and volunteers were standing room only. Thank goodness because it was a benefit for Legacies of War and Center for Lao studies, both worthy organizations that have had a significant impact on the development of our show. We first met Channapha of Legacies at the CLS conference three years ago in Elgin IL - and tat's when it all began! Without either organization, REFUGEE NATION would not be. Saturday matinee was filled with the beautiful youthful faces of our workshop students from SEAYL (South East Asian Youth Leadership for Richmond) and LASR (Laotian American Student Representatives of UC Berkeley) and even some of the elders who said they'd never leave Richmond. And amongst the crowd we had people drive up from Los Angeles, new friends who had somehow heard of the show, drove in from as far away as Sacramento, Modesto, and San Jose! And the Legacies team came to town for the benefit and held our national steering committee meeting, they came from Alaska, New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Boston, Seattle, and all over the country! Sarah of La Peña said the crowd was practically all new for La Peña. Yeah - we do what we can. Thanks everybody for your support. It was hard to leave the Bay Area, but we had to. It was hard to say goodbye to Sarah and Lakin and to our hosts Toni and Phoumy. Man Toni is a good cook - we were so spoiled we had homemade Kao pun and Pho and payapa salad almost everyday! We don't cook like that a home that's for sure! Where are all the pictures you ask? There comin' when you send them in folks! We only have a few from the nights of the shows, because well, we were so beat after each performance that we could only stand a pose for the cameras. So all you folks who were playing paparatzi and taking pictures - post them here for us or email them to us so we can add them to this blog. Thanks everyone for a successful run in Berkeley. As you can guess, people are asking when we're coming back, well, that up to you folks. Talk to your local presenters to see if we can make it happen. We want to come back, we need to go back! More photos to come, promise...