Listening is focus of Hmong Night 2016

The event features a show and dinner at 6 p.m. April 16 in the Atwood Memorial Center Ballroom.

The show features dance, song and a three-part skit. The dinner include sticky rice, Hmong sausages and other cultural favorites.

“Members of the Hmong Student Organization have been practicing every night just for this one night.  Come and watch their hard work pay off,” said Adam Her, Hmong Student Organization president.

The students seek to offer the audience an opportunity to embrace Hmong culture and learn what hardships each new generation faces, he said.

Special guest Bo Thao, a commissioner on President Barack Obama’s Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, will speak at the event.

Hmong Night focuses on the assimilation of the Hmong people in the United States and the after effects of that transition, Her said.

Through this transition young Hmong people may have lost culture, tradition and an understanding of what it means to be Hmong. Each generation has different challenges it must face, he said.

“We have slowly grown up learning violence instead of love, technology instead of tradition, English instead of Hmong.” he said. “This Hmong Night 2016 will be used as an opportunity to raise awareness, to let people know, that we are Hmong and still want to be Hmong.”

The event is open to the public. Admission is $8.

Cultural festivals are one way the university is providing a transformative educational experience for students to help prepare them to be global citizens at home, at work and in their communities. More than 1,000 students from 90-plus nations attend St. Cloud State, and cultural festivals give them an opportunity to share elements of their culture with the campus community.