It started yesterday. We headed over to UC Berkeley to do a workshop for the Laotian American Student Representatives. Lucky for us LASR also runs a mentorship program with High School students from SEAYL so we got to spend more time with some of our students earlier this week. The workshop went smoothly despite the early morning start on a Saturday. We decided to challenge this group to dig deep and explore the mythic moments of their lives, mining for stories from their ancestral memories. We got to hear many powerful stories. Still, as the workshop was coming to a close, I wasn't sure if we had got through, if we had communicated why we were here and what we do. So when we sat down to discuss our workshop and who we were, I was searching for a way to explain how important their stories were and why we needed them to come see our show. It somehow came to me. I asked how many of them have seen their story, the story of Laotians on stage live before? One Hmong student said she did when she was in school a long time ago. Point is, she remembered that she had. None of the others had. I explained, for me it was seeing Jude Narita perform her one woman show that told me wow, Asian women can do this work, if we learn to write and produce our own work. The experience of seeing your story on stage after being forgotten, never being seen on TV or Film or mainstream anything, the experience of seeing what is real to you live on stage, is an important and empowering experience.
And more than just trying to sell a ticket, that is why we need to see them in this audience. We don't want these youth to miss that experience. We don't want this community to miss that experience. And I thank these folks for reminding me why we do what we do.
Then today, we joined our hosts Phoumy and Toni, and our community reps Vinya, Khammany, and Mali at a meeting of the Laotian elders. I'll let Ova tell you more about that meeting since it happened mostly in Lao. But as I sat there watching and listening and looking at the room we were in, I started getting emotional again. This room has been built for these meetings. Over 30 years perhaps of community meetings have happened here. These elders have been doing community work for many years. These are also the people our show is about. They too need to be in our audience. If only so they can see how we honor their experiences and the issues they are addressing here today. I got emotional, even in my silent observation.
It started yesterday. We headed over to UC Berkeley to do a workshop for the Laotian American Student Representatives. Lucky for us LASR also runs a mentorship program with High School students from SEAYL so we got to spend more time with some of our students earlier this week. The workshop went smoothly despite the early morning start on a Saturday. We decided to challenge this group to dig deep and explore the mythic moments of their lives, mining for stories from their ancestral memories. We got to hear many powerful stories. Still, as the workshop was coming to a close, I wasn't sure if we had got through, if we had communicated why we were here and what we do. So when we sat down to discuss our workshop and who we were, I was searching for a way to explain how important their stories were and why we needed them to come see our show. It somehow came to me. I asked how many of them have seen their story, the story of Laotians on stage live before? One Hmong student said she did when she was in school a long time ago. Point is, she remembered that she had. None of the others had. I explained, for me it was seeing Jude Narita perform her one woman show that told me wow, Asian women can do this work, if we learn to write and produce our own work. The experience of seeing your story on stage after being forgotten, never being seen on TV or Film or mainstream anything, the experience of seeing what is real to you live on stage, is an important and empowering experience. 
And more than just trying to sell a ticket, that is why we need to see them in this audience. We don't want these youth to miss that experience. We don't want this community to miss that experience. And I thank these folks for reminding me why we do what we do.
Then today, we joined our hosts Phoumy and Toni, and our community reps Vinya, Khammany, and Mali at a meeting of the Laotian elders. I'll let Ova tell you more about that meeting since it happened mostly in Lao. But as I sat there watching and listening and looking at the room we were in, I started getting emotional again. This room has been built for these meetings. Over 30 years perhaps of community meetings have happened here. These elders have been doing community work for many years. These are also the people our show is about. They too need to be in our audience. If only so they can see how we honor their experiences and the issues they are addressing here today. I got emotional, even in my silent observation.
