The tension between maintaining a group’s cultural identity and becoming part of the larger United States society will be the focus of the 27th annual Culture Core event on Saturday (April 15) at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
The program, “Siv Peb Lub Suab: Deconstructing the Dominant Narrative,” is scheduled to run from noon to 6 p.m. in Schofield Auditorium. The event is hosted by the Hmong Student Association at UW-EC and is free and open to the public.
Chong Moua, a speaker and facilitator from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, will be the Culture Core keynote speaker. The event will also include workshop sessions that discuss how Hmong people and other marginalized communities in the United States deal with the pressures to assimilate into U.S. society while striving to maintain important aspects of their own cultural and traditional meanings, values and systems.
Moua is the founder of Faded Productions, which produces social events and entertainment designed to bring communities together.
“Our mainstream society emphasizes only to assimilate,” said Jackson Yang, Hmong Student Association vice president. “Culture Core provides an opportunity for discussion about how students of color in a predominantly white institution can validate themselves and question the many things taught and learned through white institutions.”
The event also will feature entertainment from 5 to 6 p.m. by students from UW-Eau Claire, UW-Stout, Carleton College and the University of Minnesota. Snacks will also be available.
Those planning to attend Culture Core are asked to register online.
More information about the event is available from Yang at yangjack@uwec.edu.