Minnesota has had a strong contemporary history in the development of Asian communities that have immigrated to the North Star State. The 70s saw the migration of Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos. Southeast Asians in the late 1970s and 1980s, including Hmong, Lao, Cambodian and Vietnamese made a home here, and more recently refugees from Tibet, Burma and Thailand have become a part of the dynamic Minnesota Asian community.
MPR has been recording decades of material that reflect the Asian experience in Minnesota directly from the voices of members in the community. The wide-ranging subject matter of immigration, civil rights, politics, arts & culture, music, education, and business are captured in the stories, recollections, adaptation, and traditions.
May 18, 2017 - MPR’s Marianne Combs profiles Vietnamese American spoken word artist Bao Phi, who talks of the how racial trauma affects both his poetry and life. Phi also discusses his collection, “Thousand Star Hotel.”
July 21, 2017 - MPR’s Danielle Wong profiles a St. Paul Karen dance group that is giving younger refugees a chance to celebrate their culture….and they're attracting new audiences in the Twin Cities and nationally.