St. Paul - 50th Joint Commemoration Community Events
2025-11-01 12:00 - 19:00, 2025-11-02 10:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago) | Union Depot, 214 4th St E, St. Paul, 55101, United States
Enjoy food concessions, craft vendors, entertainment, exhibits, artifacts, and much more, representing Minnesota’s vibrant Cambodian, Hmong, Lao, and Vietnamese communities, and Vietnam War era Veterans from their experiences in 1970s Southeast Asia to refugee camps and their harrowing journeys to Minnesota.
Schedule of Performances

Saturday, November 1

12:00p.m. to 12:30p.m. – National anthems (Cambodian, Lao, Vietnamese, United States)

12:30p.m. to 2:00p.m. – “America’s Secret War | Minnesota Remembers Vietnam” (Twin Cities PBS) film screening followed by a moderated panel conversation

2:00p.m. to 2:15p.m. – Lam Mahasay Dance, Lao Culture Dance Fashion MN, traditional Lao dance

2:15p.m. to 2:30p.m. – Ánh Hà, Vietnamese musical instruments

2:30p.m. to 3:00p.m. – Larry Johnson, 11 Times on the Vietnam Wall, storytelling

3:00p.m. to 3:15p.m. – Simon Ecklund, original music, vocal performance

3:15p.m. to 3:30p.m. – Open

3:30p.m. to 4:00p.m. – Trần Thị Minh Phước & Viet Youth Storytellers Troupe, storytelling

4:00p.m. to 4:15p.m. – Lao Culture Dance Fashion MN, Ket Insisiengmay, vocal performance

4:15p.m. to 4:30p.m. – Open

4:30p.m. to 4:45p.m. – Yan Roeun, One Man Band

4:45p.m. to 5:00p.m. – Ánh Hà, Vietnamese musical instruments

5:00p.m. to 5:15p.m. – Gigi Yau, vocal performance

5:15p.m. to 5:30p.m. – Open

5:30p.m. to 6:00p.m. – Ya Rath Official, Ya Rath and Rothana Seng, traditional Cambodian musical instruments and vocal performance

6:00p.m. to 6:05p.m. – Charles Yang, Hmong vocal performance

6:05p.m. to 6:10p.m. – Chee Nou, Hmong vocal performance

6:10p.m. to 6:15p.m. – Ryan Lee, Hmong vocal performance

6:15p.m. to 6:30p.m. – J2Smooth, Hmong vocal performance

6:30p.m. to 6:45p.m. – Sun Moon & J.I.M. Music, Hmong vocal performance

Sunday, November 2

10:00a.m. to 10:30a.m. – National anthems (Cambodian, Lao, Vietnamese, United States)

10:30a.m. to 10:45a.m. – Faith Xiongblaxang, Hmong vocal performance

10:45a.m. to 11:00a.m. – Wattanak Dance Troupe, classical Cambodian dance

11:00a.m. to 12:30p.m. – Moderated Veteran Panel Conversation

12:30p.m. to 12:45p.m. – Narate Keys, Khmer poetry and storytelling

12:45p.m. to 1:00p.m. – Open

1:00p.m. to 1:30p.m. – Hippee Song Revival, David West vocal performance

1:30p.m. to 3:00p.m. – “And a Time to Heal” (Twin Cities PBS) film screening followed by a moderated panel conversation

3:00p.m. to 3:15p.m. – Lao Culture Dance Fashion MN, Ket Insisiengmay, vocal performance

3:15p.m. to 3:30p.m. – “Aries” and “NkaujHmoob Ci”, Hmong traditional dance

3:30p.m. to 3:45p.m. – NewSONG, Nancy Thor, musical instruments

3:45p.m. to 4:00p.m. – Open

4:00p.m. to 4:15p.m. – Tu Bi Tu, Vietnamese Dragon Dance

4:15p.m. to 4:30p.m. – Official Lina Lee, Hmong vocal performance

4:30p.m. to 4:45p.m. – Saint Lydia, Lydia Yang vocal performance

Vendors

cacTEA House
Dearest Baker
Hello Boba
Jaidee Food Company
Jasmine

Kruncy Munchies
Mochinut
Oppa Sweets Cotton Candy
Papaya Witch
Ruam Mit

Ao dai Boutiques MN
Gaginang Greetings
TAKL Insurance
Ybeauty Nails

This event is part of the 50th Joint Commemoration programming recognizing the end of the Vietnam War, Secret War in Laos, and Southeast Asian conflict.
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Rochester - Reconstruction Destructed Film & Community Conversation
2025-11-01 13:00 - 14:30 | Historic Chateau Theater, 15 1st Street Southwest, Rochester, MN, 55902, United States
To understand the challenges African Americans still face in being seen as full citizens in America today, it is important for us to understand the origin story of the path of formerly enslaved people becoming citizens. The past is not dead; it is not even really the past.
This film, created with our movie production partner OMG Studios, features Federal Minnesota District Court Judge Jerry Blackwell, author of Just Mercy and prominent civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, Macalester University Professor Duchess Harris, and a cameo by Minnesota’s First Lady of Civil Rights, Dr. Josie Johnson.
K-12 educators will receive 2 clock hours.
Registration
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Register Now

Red Wing - Art and War: A Conversation
2025-11-06 18:00 - 19:30 | Anderson Center at Tower View, 163 Tower View Drive, Red Wing, MN, 55066, United States
Join the Minnesota Humanities Center and Anderson Center for a moderated conversation with artists who either focus on the representation of war and armed conflict in their art, or who have created art that addressed these subjects. Artists will discuss their creative output, what it means to interpret experiences of warfare, what happens in the act of interpretation and artistic creation, and what the viewing public can learn from interaction with and communal discussion of these works.
About the Artists
Mary Horgan is an artist and retired Staff Sergeant (U.S. Army). Among multiple activations, she served in the Iraq War in 2006. Horgan’s art confronts the harsh realities of war and the honorable pursuit of peace for all. Since retiring, art has become her tool for healing, peace, and resistance. Horgan’s work includes the memorial to women Veterans, “You Will Not Erase Us,” commissioned by the City of Ramsey in Minnesota. She also creates a range of two and three-dimensional art pieces that explore themes of conflict, survival, resistance, nature, beauty, and truth-telling.
Besides her artistic work, Horgan is a mother and grandmother, and caretaker of animals and gardens. She is passionate about our nation’s democracy and creates work rooted in justice, resilience, and deep personal truth and recovery.
Justin Newhall is an American artist currently based in Minneapolis. His work has been exhibited at Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Royal Academy of Arts (London), Galerie Lichtblick (Cologne), Museum of Art at Rhode Island School of Design (Providence), Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, and Jen Bekman Gallery (New York), among others.
Newhall is the recipient of artist fellowships from the McKnight Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, and Jerome Foundation. His work is represented in public and private collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Walker Art Center, and George Eastman House (New York).
Megan Rye is a visual artist and teacher. She was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1975, and currently lives in Minneapolis. Through paintings, drawings, photography, and artists books, Rye uses visual storytelling to explore themes of migration, citizenship, remembrance, war, and democracy. Rye’s first significant body of work, “I Will Follow You Into the Dark,” was a series of paintings based on photographs Rye’s brother took while serving in Iraq. This project debuted at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (2007), and was Rye’s first solo exhibit in New York City at Forum Gallery (2011). The aftermath of the Iraq War continues to reverberate, and the paintings have been studied and exhibited widely, including a recent exhibition at the Kunsthalle Emden (Germany).
Rye’s work has been sustained by significant support from the Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board.
About the Moderator
Monica Moses Haller is an artist whose work spans photography, writing, sound, and focuses on personal details that explore violence and possibilities within social and environmental systems. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. Moses Haller has exhibited and lectured at locations including Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig; and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Her artist books are collected by intuitions ranging from the Tate Modern, London, to MOMA, New York. Moses Haller works internationally and is based in her hometown of Minneapolis, where she is an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Department of Art.
This program is presented in partnership with Anderson Center at Tower View, a Red Wing-based arts and humanities organization that celebrates the imagination and support the development of new arts and ideas through residencies, studios, and public engagement.
Registration
This event is free to attend. Registration is encouraged. Light refreshments will be served at the event.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Register Now

St. Cloud - Reconstruction Destructed Film & Community Conversation
2025-11-08 13:00 - 14:30 | Atwood Memorial Center, St. Cloud University, 720 4th Ave. South, St. Cloud, MN, 56301, United States

St. Paul - Reconstruction Destructed Film & Community Conversation
2025-11-09 13:00 - 14:30 | Wilder Foundation, 451 Lexington Pkwy N., St. Paul, 55104, United States
