All posts tagged: Little Laos on the Prairie

Happy 4th birthday, Little Laos on the Prairie

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It’s already been four years ago since LLOTP was born. Time flies when you’re being Laod. We were just a wee little blog with barely 10 followers, pumping out almost daily posts after a 9-5 job on what we felt like was the world to us: defining our own words. Our joys and struggles as Lao, Minnesotan, and American were at the heart of what made our pages flow. Let’s take a look back and a look forward… 2015 Wins 1,000+ and growing followers on the website, Facebook and Twitter. Our readership base are diaspora and expat communities living in United States, Canada, Laos, Thailand, Australia, and more Our first 40th commemoration event and first national Lao diaspora photo essay “Refuge of the InvisibLao” was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota in January and at Brookdale Public Library to over 7,000 people Our first presentation on the state of Lao diaspora experiences in Minnesota, US, and returnees to Laos was at the 1st Annual Lao Writers Summit & Symposium We were invited to many 40th commemoration events and conferences …

Celebrating two years of being Lao’d at Little Laos on the Prairie

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“People are hungry for stories. It’s part of our very being. Storytelling is a form of history, of immortality too. It goes from one generation to another.” -Studs Terkel This Studs Terkel quote pretty much captures the growth of LLOTP over the past two years. LLOTP has been successful because the Lao crave stories. It’s in our cultural tradition to want and need to share stories that tell not only our realities but the values and beliefs that make us Lao; humility, compassion, and understanding. Storytelling is powerful and it has connected those of us who live at different ends of the world to what our shared journey and history in Laos has stored in us. Storytelling is also what the space LLOTP has created for Lao communities across state lines. We have seen many Lao voices emerge and although shy at first, once they write something they are passionate about, they didn’t realize they just shared a piece of them to the world. It’s been two years since Little Laos on the Prairie has …