Art, Music, and Dance
Banlang was born in Laos in 1946. She studied in France on a scholarship. After the outbreak of war in Laos, she and her family fled the country and came to the United States. Banlang has a BA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and an MAE from Ball State University. She was a Minneapolis public school teacher.
Justin recalls his Italian great-grandmother and begins tracing pieces of her rich life, including a song she recorded in 1940 for her husband while he was fighting in World War II.
"What is Hmong Dance?" is Magnolia's digital story of poetry, dance, and identity. Born in France in 1988, she moved to the United States at age 8 and is an artist, dancer, and choreographer.
Kwame began playing music when he was a child in Ghana and came to the United States in 1990 to play in C.K. Mann’s North American tour. He has recorded three albums: “Ancestors” (1997), “Ananse Stories” (2010), and “True Experience” (2015).