All posts filed under: Auto Bulk

Southeast Asian American Verse in the Time of Coronavirus

Published by Staff

Looking for something to read because you find yourself suddenly with a lot of free time but no place to socialize? This year is the 45th anniversary of the Southeast Asian diaspora, especially for the Lao and Hmong community. Because April is National Poetry Month, Little Laos on the Prairie is providing a reading list of poetry books that are still relatively easy to order from Southeast Asian poets. We recommend ordering directly from their publishers to support them, but you can also find many at major new and used bookselling websites. Lao Poets Light by Souvankham Thammavongsa, Pedlar Press, 2013. This collection won the Trillium Award in Canada for the best book of the year, examining life in Ontario. Light is among the one of the author’s books that are easier to find hers compared to her classics Small Arguments and Found, the latter of which was inspired by a scrapbook she discovered in the trash her father had kept while in the Thai refugee camps. Found later inspired a short film. Her latest collection, Cluster tackles everything from war to …

Hmong, Lao Americans running for public office in 2020

Published by Chelsey See Xiong

Tuesday marks the start of the 2020 primary election season, whose results will determine what names will appear on the general election ballot on Nov. 3 for many of the races. There are some Hmong and Lao Americans running for public office this year, and Little Laos on the Prairie compiled of list of candidates, from Congressional to municipal, to watch. While we see new faces from the municipal to the Congressional level, familiar names include Minnesota State Senator Foung Hawj, who is running for his third term, and Mayor Steve Ly, who also is campaigning for his third term for the mayoral seat of Elk Grove, California. Five Hmong Americans currently seated in the Minnesota State House are up for re-election.  CONGRESSIONAL RACES Bobby Bliatout Party Affiliation: Democrat Office: U.S. House of Representatives for California’s 22nd Congressional District This will be Bliatout’s second time running for California’s 22nd Congressional District. The first time he ran for this office was in the 2018 election, losing in the primary to fellow Democrat Andrew Janz. For more …