vmWBKK – Kao Kalia Yang

THE ROCK IN MY THROAT BY KAO KALIA YANG AND JIEMEI LIN

Happy Wednesday! I’m thrilled Kao Kalia Yang and Jiemei Lin stopped by Watch. Connect. Read. to finish my sentences. We discussed The Rock in My Throat, Jiemei Lin’s illustrations, finding beauty in the small gifts of the natural world, and more. I wrote the words in purple, Jiemei Lin wrote the words in black, and Kao Kalia […]

Three U of M faculty honored with 2023 Guggenheim Fellowships

https://twin-cities.umn.edu/news-events/three-u-m-faculty-honored-2023-guggenheim-fellowships

ANNOUNCING THE 2023 GUGGENHEIM FELLOWS

Minnesota Opera’s The Song Poet: Behind the Scenes

See behind the scenes.

The Song Poet (w/Kao Kalia Yang & Josephine Yang)

For the first time, a Hmong story heads for the opera

When someone mentions opera, what comes to mind? Verdi, Puccini, maybe Mozart? Probably not Kao Kalia Yang. The St. Paul writer never set out to get into opera. In 2016 she wrote her book, “The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father.” On March 9, that story will have its debut at the Minnesota Opera. […]

From St. Paul’s East Side to the stage, Kao Kalia Yang’s ‘The Song Poet’ is first Hmong story adapted to opera

For much of Kao Kalia Yang’s life, the world of opera felt very far away. “I grew up poor on the East Side of St. Paul,” Yang said. “I came here as a refugee kid. So, the world of opera is not a very accessible world to me. I’d gone to a few operas when […]

Minnesota Opera opens ‘The Song Poet’ by local author Kao Kalia Yang

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) – The confined walls of St. Paul’s historic East Side Freedom Library still create an expansive world of words and stories. One of those stories comes from a respected Hmong author whose father used to bring her and her sister to this library every week to bring home a bag of new books. […]