Maplewood – Learning from Place: HmongTown Marketplace & Beyond

This Learning from Place experience offers a rare opportunity to witness the becoming of place through an inspiring vision of founder and CEO of HmongTown Marketplace and Pan Asian Center, Toua Xiong, who dreamed of having a place to call home. Beginning at the Pan Asian Center, participants are welcomed by Yao Yaj, Executive Director of HmongTown Connections who will share 50 years of Hmong resilience and economic contributions while traveling to the iconic HmongTown Marketplace. There, participants step into a vibrant marketplace rooted in culture and tradition, where many vendors and community members are from an older generation, carrying forward cultural knowledge and memories through everyday commerce. Participants experience rows of fresh herbs, traditional goods, and street foods like Hmong sausage, papaya salad, and steamed fish, while sampling exotic fruits and tri color dessert.

The journey returns to Pan Asian Center, where participants will have the opportunity to hear Toua Xiong share his inspiring story surviving the jungles of Laos to mastering English and the hard lessons navigating city codes and permits in his pursuit to create a place to call home. The program ends just in time for participants to experience the full flair of Asian Street Food Night Market.

Through this experience, participants gain tangible insight into how communities evolve over time, how cultural assets can drive economic development, and how investing in place can strengthen identity, expand opportunity, and shape the future for the next generation.

K-12 Educators will receive 3 clock hours upon completion of the event.

This experience is presented in collaboration with HmongTown Connections, whose mission is to create spaces where Hmong can live, work, and connect while preserving, teaching, and sharing Hmong history, languages and culture.

Registration

To ensure that cost is not a barrier, we have a limited number of complimentary spaces available for Minnesota residents. If you would like to receive a complimentary spot, please register with the discount code FEEWAIVER.

Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org | MHC Cancellation Policy

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