A miracle is happening in Alaska!

We are so excited!We’re going to be BIG in Anchorage! No small feat! With the amazing help of our presenter Mike Huelsman of OUTNORTH, we’ve made contact with two community organizers who are AMAZING! Toc, a young Laotian go-getter and Lee a passionate Hmong social worker, trusted leaders and STRONG WOMEN in their communities, are by our side! Today we had the most amazing conference call, a crazy daisy chain in and of itself. The call included Mike, Toc, Lee, AND May Lee Yang our Hmong collaborating artist and translator, Ova and Leilani and OUTNORTH staff. I don’t’ think we’ve ever had so much support before even arriving in a city. We are going to Anchorage on Friday, a weekend before our performances to do outreach and our schedule is packed with workshops and appearances. So much so that we are going to have to split up, Ova and Leilani with Toc to meet with Lao community, May Lee with Lee to meet with Hmong community. AND we will be conducting workshops and doing an assembly for a local Middle School.

I have to share two stories that also came out of this planning meeting.

THE STORY IS BEING SHARED ALREADY - Lee has a son that goes to the middle school we will be working with. He came home with a notice about a REFUGEE NATION workshop. He told his mom he didn’t sign up because “we’re not refugees.” WELL, his mom set him straight. She then shared his legacy by telling her son all about his parents and grandparents struggle through tragedy and escape from Laos. The conversation ended with, Lee’s son saying “Oh, okay, then I guess I’ll sign up for this.”

TRANSLATION – we considered the question about translating our flier into Hmong and Lao. Lee informed us that well, most of the Hmong who recently arrived in Anchorage don’t read Hmong, some maybe read Lao, most read THAI. Well of course, we realized, the new wave of refugees have been living in THAI refugee camps for maybe 20 or 30 years. So then, what do we do? Well, we are going to need to do THREE translations – Lao, Hmong AND THAI! I wont mention that we ought to do Kmai too… but we’ll save that for another day.

So the preparations for Refugee Nation to take Alaska continue… - Leilani



Refugee Nation
Written and performed by Leilani Chan and Ova Saopeng
Based on the stories of Laotian Refugees in the U.S.

November 9, 10, 11, & 12, 2007
@ OUTNORTH, Anchorage, Alaska
www.outnorth.org

November 16 & 17, 2007
@ Bunnell Street Gallery, Homer, Alaska
www.bunnellstreetgallery.org