Hmong Cultural Center – Hard At Work Preserving Hmong Heritage
By Kim Yang
The Hmong Cultural Center, located at 375 University Avenue, Suite 204 in St. Paul, provides community outreach activities related to multicultural education for the purposes of promoting positive race relations in the Twin Cities community.
The Hmong Cultural Center is home to the Hmong Resource Center Library, which is perhaps the most comprehensive collection of Hmong-related literature, scholarly research, and multimedia materials in North America. The Hmong Cultural Center Museum offers many interactive displays that teach about the Hmong people, their history, their culture and their experience in the U.S. over the past 50 years.
Here’s a look at what’s happening at HCC this spring.
Schedule A Spring Or Summer Field Trip To The Hmong Cultural Center Museum
The Hmong Club at Washington Tech Magnet High School in St. Paul is one of more than 25 schools and universities that have scheduled field trips to visit the Hmong Cultural Center Museum so far this Spring. For more info about scheduling a tour for your group visit: https://hmongculturalcentermuseum.org/
Call For Papers: New Book On 50 Years of the Hmong Experience In Minnesota
The Hmong Studies Journal in partnership with the Hmong Cultural Center of Minnesota has been awarded a grant of $24,750 from the Minnesota Historical Society to publish a book collection of scholarly articles on 50 years of the Hmong Experience in Minnesota. The articles will also be included in a special future issue of the Hmong Studies Journal.
Dr. Mark Pfeifer, co-editor of the Hmong Studies Journal stated, “We are very excited to have this grant support from the Minnesota State Historical Society and the Minnesota State Legislature for this book project and special issue of the journal that will help commemorate 50 years of Hmong residing in and contributing to life in Minnesota. We believe this may be the first scholarly book collection to be solely dedicated to the range of Hmong experiences in Minnesota, which is now home to at least 95,000 Hmong Minnesotans and has played a crucial role in the Hmong American experience. As such, this also will be an important publication in the Hmong Studies scholarly literature.”
Txongpao Lee, Executive Director of Hmong Cultural Center said, “Hmong have contributed so much to Minnesota over the past 50 years. This grant-supported book project will help us better document and share the Hmong experience in Minnesota. The project ties in very well with our unique storefront museum which teaches visitors about Hmong history, culture and Hmong milestones and contributions and Minnesota.”
Article Proposal Submission Process:
Authors are invited to submit 1 page proposals for article submission for this special publication. All articles must focus on an important facet of the Hmong experience in Minnesota. Possible article topics may include: local Hmong community history in Minnesota, Hmong residential, cultural and socioeconomic adaptation in Minnesota, Hmong political and social movements in the state, Hmong experiences with education in Minnesota, gendered experiences of Hmong Minnesotans, connections of Hmong Minnesotans to transnational Hmong Diaspora communities and public health in the Hmong Minnesotan community. Authors may send their 1 page article proposal to markpfeifer@hmongcc.org by the deadline of May 30, 2025.
Author Stipends Available:
Authors will hear by July 2025 whether their article proposals are accepted. Invited authors with accepted proposals will have until October 30, 2025 to submit their articles for publication with article review and revision to take place in the Fall of 2025 and publication of the book and the special issue of the Hmong Studies Journal by June 2026. Authors who submit articles that are accepted for publication will receive a $1,000 stipend for their time on the project after their final article draft has been approved by the editorial board of the Hmong Studies Journal.
About the Photo: The photo above was donated to Hmong Cultural Center as part of a collection of photos taken by an ESL teacher who taught at the Lehmann Center in South Minneapolis in the early 1980s. The photo is of a primarily Hmong adult ESL class visiting the Minnesota State Fair in the summer of 1983.
HCC Gifted Plaque in Honor of Its Legacy of Community Service in Hmong Cultural Arts Education
We would like to thank artist Seexeng Lee for gifting a new Qeej player sculpture to Hmong Cultural Center on 9/9/24, his birthday!
According to the artist, this sculpture is a gift to HCC for the organization’s “continued preservation of my (the Hmong) culture and cultural practices over the past 32 years.” From the artist’s statement, the sculpture has “3 tiers, representing the importance of past, present and future. The Hmong word “Peb”, is used as ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘ours.’ The Qeej player is made of brass with 24kt gold leaf. Highlighting that HCC’s trained Qeej players are simply golden.”
We appreciate this show of support for HCC’s long history of teaching the Qeej and other Hmong ceremonial arts including wedding and funeral songs to the Hmong community of Minnesota.
Citizenship Success Stories
Yer Yang began attending Citizenship and ESL classes at Hmong Cultural Center in 2019 and passed the U.S. Citizenship exam and interview in September 2024.
Mai Yer Thao earned her U.S. Citizenship after taking a Citizenship class at HCC! HCC offers free Citizenship classes mornings, late afternoons and a noon class for Hmong elders, Zoom and in-person options available.
Congratulations to Kaying Xiong who recently passed his naturalization exam! Kaying started studying Citizenship at HCC in 2020 and returned to class several times. Kaying shows that persistence pays off!
HCC offers morning and late afternoon Citizenship classes for Minnesota residents to meet all schedules with online Zoom options available! Call 651-917-9937 for more info about registering for a Citizenship class at HCC.
Images courtesy Hmong Cultural Center.
