The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father by Kao Kalia Yang LIS 7630 Kathryn Lassi

Kai Kalia Yang Speaking at the 2016 Wisconsin Book Festival https://www.c-span.org/video/?416995-2/kao-kalia-yang-discusses- song-poet 3:20 – 5:20

Kai Kalia Yang Was born in Thailand’s Ban Vinai Refugee Camp in December, 1980. She came to Minnesota with her parents and older sister in 1987. Was a selective mute as a child. A graduate of Carleton College and Columbia University, Yang also co-hosts a weekly radio program focusing on the Hmong community. Together with her sister, she founded Words Wanted, a company dedicated to helping immigrants with writing, translating, and business services. She has recently released The Place Where We Were Born, a film documenting the experiences of Hmong American refugees. She currently lives in St. Paul with her husband, Aaron Hokanson, their three children, her younger sister and her younger brother. "The Latehomecomer" (2008) was her first book first memoir written by a Hmong-American to be published with national distribution 2009 Minnesota Book Award Winner 2010 PEN USA Literary Award for Nonfiction Finalist http://www.startribune.com/review-the-song-poet-by-kao-kalia-yang/378330461/

Summary This is a lyrical and very moving novel that shines a light on a daughter’s deep love of her father and her father’s enduring love for his family. This book is told in first person narrative of both Kao Kalia Yang’s perspective as well as her father Bee’s. Her words for him are based off of stories he has told her all her life and the poetry he sang. Her father was a song poet who sang of the Hmong life. At one point he even made and album on tape, but due to financial restraints, was never able to make another. It is because of this that Yang made each chapter a track and the switching of perspectives a different sides of a tape. She speaks of the influence her father’s poetry and stories had on her life and that of her family. Her father Bee speaks of his childhood growing up fatherless during the Laotian Civil War, of his mother’s struggle of raising him and his other siblings. He speaks of his struggle of becoming a father when he didn’t have one himself, of his family forced to flee Laos to become refugees in Thailand, and the hardships they faced being immigrants in America. In each country he experiences injustice. In Thailand he was forced to be a drug runner in order to stay alive and in America Bee worked as a machinist in a factory with unsafe working conditions and supervisors who discriminated against him and his fellow Hmong coworkers. He persevered to keep his family alive. They sacrificed so much for their children, even their time together, for they had to work different shifts in order to be there for them. They struggled being parents in a world so different from the one they grew up in. It is a book that highlights the bonds of family and the sacrifices they made for each other.

How It Fits the Genre: Nonfiction Based on real events and characters: Kai Kalia Yang’s father and her family Contains verifiable facts War in Laos Refugee status Nonfiction has varied readability Narrative (Reads like a novel) Memoir Life stories in the first person Explores noteworthy, finite events in her father’s life Subjective memories and reactions Transformative stories Expatriate life Lifestyle memoirs Feature evocative descriptions of different environments, communities, and cultural landscapes

Discussion Questions What are your thoughts on the book? How did the absence of his father influence his life and his life as a father himself? Kao Kalia Yang and her family experienced many hardships in America. What did you think of these? In the book, Bee slaps his daughter Dawb after she calls him a racist. How did education cause a conflict within their family? What do you think was the biggest lessons Bee learned from Shong, his oldest brother? How do you think Bee handled his Eldest son’s behavior? Do you think telling him to not fight back and just ignore the abuse was the right thing to do? How do you think they were able to persevere and keep hope alive through all the tragedy and hardships they experienced? Yang said, “I didn’t tell my father that I’d finally listened and found meaning in his songs. … I did not want to tell my father that his song had shook my heart” (p. 13). Why do you think that is? Do you think Yang did a good job writing from her father’s perspective? Do you have any remaining thoughts? Was there a track or a story in the book that particularly stood out to you?

Resources https://www.c-span.org/video/?416995-2/kao-kalia-yang-discusses- song-poet Documentary: The Place Where We Were Born https://vimeo.com/748923

Read-alikes

References Bloomquist, M. (2017, Feb 20). Q & A with Kao Kalia Yang. Retrieved from http://mspmag.com/arts-and-culture/the-morning-after/q-a- with-kao-kalia-yang/ Hertzel, L. (2016, April 13). Hmong writer Kao Kalia Yang writes memoir of her father's life in Laos and Minnesota. Retrieved from http://www.startribune.com/hmong-writer-kao-kalia-yang-writes- memoir-of-her-father-s-life-in-laos-and-minnesota/375565821/ Kao Kalia Yang Discusses Song Poet. (2016, October 22). https://www.c- span.org/video/?416995-2/kao-kalia-yang-discusses-song-poet Kao Kalia Yang. (2017, April 10). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kao_Kalia_Yang&oldid=774 825194http://coffeehousepress.org/authors/kao-kalia-yang/

Questions? Thank you!