This Twin Cities playwright honors the range of the Hmong experience on stage

This year marks 50 years of Hmong refugee resettlement and immigration to Minnesota. MPR News will feature Hmong Minnesotans in a variety of careers through the month of May as part of our “ChangeMakers” series. This series highlights Minnesotans from diverse and often underrepresented backgrounds who are making an impact. 

While she isn’t from Minnesota originally, playwright Katie Ka Vang has made it her artistic home. Vang grew up in California and Colorado — the first of her family born in America — and moved to the Twin Cities when she was 18.  

In the years since, she’s collaborated with Theater Mu, Pangea World Theater and Mixed Blood Theatre. Her 2023 musical “Again” is believed to be the first professionally produced musical by a Hmong American Playwright. This summer her newest play “SIX PACK” will be presented by the Jungle Theater in Minneapolis.  

Her plays often deal with people at a moment of major change — often in the wake of personal or familial tragedy, often with a cast of Southeast Asian characters.  

In what ways has your heritage influenced how you approach your work? 

I always try to cast, like bring in a Hmong actor, or like Hmong actors, because I think that sometimes I’m unable to see certain things, and I can stand in my own way, or maybe I’m unsure about something, but to have someone with a similar lived experience come in and sort of be like, “Yeah, this is how, this is what this resonates.”

I think those are some of the ways that I bring it in. I think I really lean into, like, family relationships. I think a lot of my place, I’ve really centered family relationships and that dynamic of, like, who can say what … what don’t you say to elders or people who are older than you and respect and you know? 

I think I’m trying to really nuance a narrative. And I don’t know, I just feel like with the rise of anti-Asian American sentiments, I feel like people often don’t see us as humans. As flawed, full humans, and they see us mostly as objects.

And so I think part of what I do is trying to set up to nuance a narrative. And I’m always like, I know, we’re a part of a larger whole, but also, where can I also disaggregate the data of like Asian American, and then also like a Hmong American.

You’re a cancer survivor — what influence has your cancer experience had on your work? 

A lot. I think, down to sort of getting the diagnosis to sort of like family and friend relationships. I mean, that’s sort of the beauty of being a playwright, there’s like a kernel, and then you can kind of fan it out and you can go whichever way. So, yeah. I mean, I think [my work] is deeply informed by my lived experiences. 

Your new play “SIX PACK” opens at the end of the month. Can you tell us a little bit about it? 

What I really wanted to do was really show this beautiful culture of the Freedom Festival that we have in Minnesota — it happens every year around July 4, and it’ s a huge celebration... Hmong people celebrating togetherness, coming together. And within this festival, it also has a huge sports tournament.

And I remember, prior to moving here, I would come up here every year to also compete in this volleyball tournament. And I would be just so scared of like these Minnesota Hmong volleyball girls. It’s about this friendship that's trying to redefine itself ... with a backdrop [of] this freedom festival and a women’s volleyball team called six pack. 

Speaking of projects you’re working on, you have also received $100,000 from the Joyce Foundation in collaboration with Theater Mu meant to develop a project about the 50th anniversary of Hmong resettlement in Minnesota. What’s it like working on that project? 

“Hmong Futures” is really an idea that I’m trying to experiment with. This specific award is around community engagement...it's really the gathering and research phase of my playwriting trajectory of this play. 

I put together “Hmong Futures” Advisory Committee ... each member holds like a small dinner gathering of like 10 to 15 people, and we asked them questions around the future.

One question is, “what is your hope for the future?” Another one is “what currently exists that you don't want to see in the future.” Another one is, “We’ve been there for 50 years. What sticks out to you about the last 50 years?” and so trying to, like, focus conversations around these three questions, and also, you know, having food with people.  

I’m curious how it feels to be one of the preeminent playwrights about writing about what it means to be Hmong American?

I think it’s both an honor and a burden. I think, you know, I think one thing that I also set out to do is that my voice is not the end all be all, it’s really one version. And so I try to really also give context when I’m like either writing an artist statement or something.

I mean, the thing I love about theater is that it does provide discourse, whether people love it or hate it or have their opinions. I’ve learned to just like, let it be and sort of like, this is what I set out to do, right? Even if people are saying, No, that’s not me, you know, I’m like, great. Tell me why? Because that within itself is also a story.

But it’s mostly an honor. It’s mostly an honor that I’ve sort of rallied and garnered and work flipping hard to find the resources and continue to. It’s like, you don’t know when it’s gonna end. 

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