Minors’ Book Series in Cooperation with Students and Teachers at Public and Charter Schools in Minnesota:

Lub Neej Thoj Nam Tawg Rog (Life as a Refugee)

Series is on line at     http://www.folklorestudio.com/MinorsSchoolBooks/

Comments on Minors’ Photo Projects & Book Series

From Educators at Participating Schools

Our journey to completing this book was enriching and rewarding for our students at CSE. This volume has found its permanent place in the classroom for students to read for many years. Students and teachers have shared their thoughts with me about getting more books like this one in the near future.

– Leng W. Xiong, Hmong and Chinese Language Director

Community School Excellence, Saint Paul

There is a tremendous lack of Hmong language learning resources on Hmong history, culture and traditions, which this series goes a long way towards rectifying. These books are preserving our history, memory and language and fit the needs of our dual language program very well.

We are hopeful of more books like these, and that the series can continue.

– Bounthavy Kiatoukaysy,

Honored as 2022 Minnesota World Language Teacher of the Year

by the Minnesota Council on the Teaching of Language and Cultures

I would love for other Hmong teachers to participate with this project so students can see their writings read in the community. For sure, we would want to participate with this project again in the future. Most importantly, the school administrators like the project and the results of the books being used in the community. We distributed the books to the classroom teachers and the media center so all staff can have access to the books.

–Nao Thao, Hmong Language Teacher

HOPE Community Academy, Saint Paul

This year we plan to continue to work with Minors and our current class will also participate by interviewing their relatives about their experiences. We will also be encouraging other Hmong language classes at other schools to join in the effort. We are confident these resources being developed by Minors will serve the needs of the Hmong community and our future generations to stay in touch with our heritage.

– Youa Lee, Advanced Hmong Language Teacher

Harding High School, Saint Paul Public Schools

The experience was incredibly valuable to the students and their families because these photos beautifully captured the raw experiences of what life was like in the refugee camps–something students have never seen before. They were able to interact with their families and their elders who had first-hand experience in the refugee camps. Students were then able to share a poetic interpretation of their family’s and elder’s narratives.

It’s been exciting to see our students engage in authentic writing projects like this one with Minors – where they are examining pictures of Hmong families in the refugee camps and are learning about that period of history, which is so personally tied to their own family histories.

It has opened up cross-generational conversations in our students’ families, as well interest in learning about who they are. It has also challenged our students to use their knowledge of the Hmong language in real and authentic ways – learning and sharing those stories through published works of writing.

We would be happy to continue to work with Minors in their new project to develop art/photo exhibits and additional photo books through providing guidance and feedback on the content of the materials produced and on the possible uses in an educational setting.

We are so proud to have these books incorporated into our curriculum and added to our libraries and classrooms to be shared with all of our students. We are excited about the outcomes of this project and the impact it can have on our students and the Hmong community.

– May Lee Xiong, Principal

Txuj Ci Hmong Language and Culture Lower Campus, St Paul Public Schools

(Formerly Phalen Lake Hmong Studies Magnet Elementary School)

At the program level, the book project brings forth the strength of a language program in having published student work which is now incorporated into the integrated curriculum. We are thrilled to be able to collaborate with Minors to broaden the outreach in sharing the untold experiences of the Hmong, while preserving Hmong culture, history and language with others.

The impact of this collaboration with Minors on a large scale greatly benefits our Hmong Dual Language program’s connection to the community and families by including their refugee experience and narratives. The book and art projects by Minors greatly add strength to our teaching of Hmong history.

 These materials are instrumental in our culture and language programs and would add a much-needed resource into our schools and community.

– Bao Xiong Hmong Dual Language Coordinator-Coach

 Txuj Ci Hmong Language and Culture Lower Campus, Saint Paul Public Schools

In spite of centuries of persecution, exile and migration, Hmong people around the world share the unbreakable bond of a powerful cultural identity. Minors’ book project on the Hmong refugee and resettlement experience reflects an important aspect of this cultural identity.

We foresee that this additional series will provide valuable and powerful resources for our educators and students, as well as to the broader community. We wholeheartedly support the goals and objectives of Minors’ project.

– Bao Vang, CEO

Community School of Excellence

Teachers at additional schools would find the experience incredibly powerful and a great addition to developing engaging and culturally relevant lessons for their curriculum.

-See Pha Vang, Office of Teaching and Learning,

Dual Language/Immersion, St Paul Public Schools

From University Educators

As an educator, I know that the book series and related projects Minors aims to complete is much needed and long overdue. These first hand experiences make the curriculum educational, lively, and interesting. Minors’ project will remind and teach all Minnesotans about the rich cultural heritage of our state.

– Lee Pao Xiong, Director

The Center for Hmong Studies

 Concordia University

 I wholeheartedly support Minor’s book and photo projects. I teach Critical Hmong Studies and Social Work classes which emphasize social justice and empowerment of marginalized communities, and would gladly adopt these materials for my courses if published. These stories are considered absent narratives; often invisible due to the loud voices of the majority who believe their stories are the only stories worthy of being told.”

– Pa Der Vang, Ph.D.

LICSW Associate Professor

BSW Program

St. Catherine University

Minors’ “Lub Neej Thoj Nam Tawg Rog: Life as a Refugee” project comes at a very pivotal moment for educators, learners, and families. Not only is Hmong language education at a crossroad after 50 years of settlement in the United States, but Hmong identity is also quickly facing challenges of uncertainty and disconnection.

This series of books, authored by the students themselves, are necessary authentic texts that students of all ages can use for a multi-faceted framework of learning. Not only that, the images of daily lives in the camps are nostalgic and give deep meanings to parents who may not have found the connection on how they, themselves, can be of service to their children’s learning.

 Often, in academia, it is expected and often expressed that parents are their children’s first teachers. Parents are expected to also support the students’ home education by being actively involved but it is not possible when everything children bring home is so foreign to the parents. They feel insufficient and often support through words of encouragement instead of active parental involvement. Minor’s project allows that space in between where the disconnection between parent and child has been growing in the Hmong community, causing further inter-generational traumas.

The images selected perfectly compliment the words and expressions authored by the students. Both the voices of students and parents are echoed within the pages as teachers are able to build units around language, identity, community, family connections and beyond.

I look forward to using these books with my students in a number of lessons and content topics. I also look forward for my higher ed students to be inspired by the work of K-12 authors and to be reflective of their own identities as they look through the images while reading the depth of the voices on the pages. 

– Bee Vang-Mougiaxeng

Director of Hmong Language Program

Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies 

College of Liberal Arts | University of Minnesota

From Community Organizations

Pebmoob Senior Center is a day program serving the elderly population from the Hmong community. Our management, staff and seniors are happy to be involved with Minors’ book projects and are eager to share their stories and insights. Our seniors have so many important things to teach our youngest generation, and we want to help out with this project as best we can.

– Tia Yang, Executive Director Pebmoob Senior Center

These books have been significantly essential to the young folks in our programs and to those who visit our spaces, to learn about their own Hmong history, which was not so long ago. If our young folks do not know their history, they soon lose their cultural identities. Thank you for creating these books for our Hmong community, and also for other communities to learn about our history!

– May Yer Thao,  President and CEO, Hmong American Partnership (HAP)

Minors’ projects offer a great collection of images that showcase the experiences of Hmong refugees, and is a very good resource for Museum visitors and as a part of the Hmong language curriculum. We’re excited to use them in our programming in the future and expand on the wonderful work that the students have done by connecting with historical images through poetry.

– Mai N Vang, Founder and Director, The Hmong Museum, Saint Paul