kao kalia yang will be in Madison

[fuglyhottie]

i mean seriously, we should really use common sense. do you really think she would go up on stage and say, "i normally charge 5k for this talk but because you guys are hmong and family, it's on the house." ? LOL

exactly  that part about going up on stage and making that haughty announcement is just hard to believe 

[acuratl_guy]

x2, ha, ha... seems dude complain all the time

It's not hate when it's true....but we all are entitled to our own opinions and views....dont' like what I say, so be it....

[drEamer]

doesnt sound that poetic to me

[Special_K]

If that was your sister you'd be proud of her, for going to college and writing a book.
just very sad that hmong people can't stand to see another hmong person succeed so they bash 

AMEN to that !!   

[2Wicked]

man don't you guys just ever stop hating and just give props?

show some support for a sista!

[koumoua]

for all you haters.... won't you write a book and see if it gets published.... then imma read it cover to cover and say to yall "meh, that there author of that book is not attractive much."

[2Wicked]

for all you haters.... won't you write a book and see if it gets published.... then imma read it cover to cover and say to yall "meh, that there author of that book is not attractive much."

that's what i'm saying?! 

[August Night]

Oct 1st and 2nd for the madison book festival....do ing a kids writing workshop friday and showing of this movie on the 2nd

Kao Kalia Yang Writing Workshop for Youth
Friday, October 1  |  4:30 - 6:30 PM
Venue: Kennedy Heights Community Center
Presenter(s): Kao Kalia Yang
The experiences as an immigrant guide the writings of Kao Kalia Yang, author of The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir. This workshop encourages youth to define and write their own stories. Participants must pre-register for this FREE workshop. Click HERE to register.
Category(s): International, Writing & Publishing, Youth & Kids Kao Kalia Yang Film Screening: The Place You Were Born
Friday, October 1  |  7:00 - 8:00 PM
Venue: Kennedy Heights Community Center
Presenter(s): Kao Kalia Yang
Hmong author Koa Kalia Yang, author of The Latehomecomer, will screen The Place Where We Were Born, a lyric documentary about the Hmong experience in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp. The screening will be followed by an interactive dialogue with the audience members.
Category(s): International, Society & Politics, Wisconsin Ties Kao Kalia Yang: Saturday, October 2 Kao Kalia Yang & Judy Pasternak
Saturday, October 2  |  5:30 - 7:00 PM
Venue: Promenade Hall/Overture

Presenter(s): Kao Kalia Yang, Judy Pasternak
In search of a place to call home, thousands of Hmong families made the journey from the war-torn jungles of Laos to the overcrowded refugee camps of Thailand and onward to America, but their history remains largely unknown. Kao Kalia Yang’s memoir The Latehomecomer is a tribute to her grandmother, the remarkable woman whose spirit held the family together. With a journalist’s heart for the truth and a storyteller’s gift for lyricism, Yang describes her family’s harrowing escape from Laos, their life in the refugee camps, and her own experiences with American life and learning. In her compelling and compassionate expose, Yellow Dirt: The Betrayal of the Navajo, prize-winning investigative reporter Judy Pasternak reveals how from the 1930’s to the 1960’s, the United States knowingly used and discarded an entire tribe of people: In the uranium mines that fueled the Manhattan Project and the Cold War, the Navajo worked unprotected. Pasternak chronicles the state-sanctioned deception which resulted in the deadly radiation contamination of the tribe’s air, water and soil. Transporting readers into a little-known country-within-a-country, Pasternak gives rare voice to Navajo perceptions of the world, their own complicated involvement with uranium mining, and their political coming-of-age.

I wish I was close enuff to attend.  I'm currently reading the book and think it's great.  I love that she weaves history with her experiences.  It's not all just facts and history or some meeka's view on the Hmong people.  Reading this from a child's perspective was so cute and I'm amazed that she remembers so much!  I cracked up about the diarrhea dipping sauce on the airplane!!  LOL  

Reading this really makes me appreciate all that my parents did to bring us to this country. I'm sure most of our parents had the same fears and worries while dragging our bare arses through the jungle!  For all of you naysayers, she came here probably a decade after most of us and she's a published author.  What's your accomplishment s?

I've shown photos of Ban Vinai to my co-workers and told them I was born there, they're all so amazed at how accomplished and successful Hmong ppl are when most of us were born in third world country poverty.

heard her speak at a family grad celebration- she rubbed the OGs wrong by saying that she normally charged 5grand for appearances and that she waved the fee for the event. that's where she is a bit full of herself.

It's called an appearance fee.  If they're offended by her remark then they should have just asked a relative who has a degree to be the guest speaker.

[divagrl]

love her book.. enjoy it.. any books she written beside the late homecomer

[jbutton]

heard her speak at a family grad celebration- she rubbed the OGs wrong by saying that she normally charged 5grand for appearances and that she waved the fee for the event. that's where she is a bit full of herself.

We are trying to bring in a speaker and he costs us $12,000.  Too many Hmong people expect free stuff.  She's kind enough to do it for free.  They should thank her for that.  And she probably points out that it is important to be a writer.  Hope the parents understand that and encourage their kids to be writer. 

[DarkHunter]

First time I heard of this author.

Maybe those old folks got offended because they misunderstood her.

Funny thing is, whenever Hmong folks have to spend some kind of money to support their own people, most are always complaining. But when it comes to getting charge, even overly pay or cheated by somebody else, a non-Hmong person, it’s all fine and dandy all of a sudden. Idiots!

I live in a non-Hmong community, but when I do visit every now and then those bigger Hmong communities, I make the effort to check out the Hmong stores, restaurants, and other businesses there. Financially showing my support to help keep the money circulate within the community, or at least hoping my money will help support some of my people so they have the money to take care of themselves and their family. Who cares if some are more successful. I certainly am not envious at all. When you help your own people succeed, their success will also reflect on you too. Their success will become your success and your success will become their success because you are all one and the same- from the same group. I’ve met some prejudice ass non-Hmong folks that like to rub their people’s success in my face and ever since that, it changed my whole perspective. I have become a lot more actively supportive of my community, not that I hated my identity before. I never had and never will, just it opened my eyes to some things I wasn’t so aware about before.

She’s a writer. She makes her living by writing. No more different than artists that paint, draw or whatever else. I’m already first generation born and raised in the States, I have even less memories than someone like her. At least I still have my elders to look to for answers about who I am. Those generations afterward, they will get less and less. At least a writer like her is recording our people’s history down, even in the form of storytelling. One day, it will become of value to those future generations like my kids, their kids and so forth- when our elders and the rest of our generation (that have first contact with our elders) are all gone. They at least have something to look back on and discover about themselves if such question(s) ever arise about their identity. Yeah, I’m interested and might consider in purchasing some of her books, adding them on to my other Hmong books I’ve been collecting. Thought maybe someday, I’ll pass them on to my kids in case they may have questions or want to know more about their heritage. I think the next time when I’m visiting one of those big Hmong community, I’ll also look around and buy some Hmong arts too. I’ve seen some beautiful Hmong paintings posted on the net.

Man, why some individual out there have to have such a negative mentality?

[Poj Nom Poj Huab Tais]

It's not hate when it's true....but we all are entitled to our own opinions and views....dont' like what I say, so be it....

  I swear outta all the mods you're the most ignorant, negative and closedminded one ever how you even get mod status? lay off on the haterade cause even if you are mod you aint $hit

[passingby#2]

Are we discussing the book or are we discussing if we like Kao Kalia Yang?

I liked the book, that's all that matters to me.  Bye.

[SummerBerry]

Her Hmong isn't all that great...its good enuff but not great

the way she speaks, it sounds like she's reading a script and I'm sure she probably wrote everything and read it over and over and over until she memorized it...it's just my opinion but doesn't it seem like that tho?

I'm actually almost done reading her book "The Latehomecomer".............. I sense a lot of stuffs she wrote in there is probably made up because personally she made it sound as she got it all good in Thailand when basically we all know life is not like what she wrote base on her experiences and any Hmong that have gone through the same as she did.  Its actually a bigger struggle, worst......... ., etc........... ...  For her parents......a lot of things they said is beyond like they know so much about the life of in America when honestly they should just be like any other Hmong OG who has no clues about anything. 

Its pretty much like I'm saying........ ....... peb Hmoob tseem dumb tshaj what she make it sound in her books during those earlier time of arrival in US.

[AF-Wife]

I don't understand why we are criticzing her OWN personal experience?  The book is from her prespective, so of course it's different from your very own experience and prespective and it surely doesn't make her wrong.  She's not trying to write this book as a way to group Hmong people. 

The book is well written, easy to follow, a good read.