Katie Ka Vang with Theater Mu are one of the five winners of the 2024 Joyce Awards, which lift up collaborations between artists of color and arts and community organizations throughout the Great Lakes region.
“Through grassroots work and working in the nonprofit cultural arts sector, I saw the power of art as a way to navigate systems, and use storytelling to shift narratives and shape a new reality. I write in hopes of transformation for me and my Hmong American and Asian American people, and do this by summoning up courage to look at the things we do to ourselves and each other so we can change. As a first-generation Hmong American, my worldview was largely shaped by my refugee parents' lived experiences related to political persecution, traumatic experiences, displacement, and poverty, and I hope my work is a vessel for myself and my community to co-create ideas that point toward liberation and transformation.” -Katie Ka Vang
Hmong American playwright Katie Ka Vang will develop Hmong Futures, a new theater project illuminating the diverse stories of the Hmong diaspora in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, reflecting on the 50th anniversary of Hmong and Southeast Asian resettlement in the United States in 2025. Commissioned by Theater Mu, the largest Asian American theater company in the Midwest, the project will be developed through deep engagement with Hmong community members, including interviews, story circles, workshop readings, family-style dinners, and facilitated conversations. One of the topics of exploration will include agriculture in Hmong life (including Vang’s own experience with her mother as a farmer) and its role as a way of practicing culture. Vang’s project aims to spotlight the experiences of the Hmong community in the Twin Cities—home to the largest Hmong American population in the United States in a major metropolitan area—while providing a forum for Hmong people to imagine a collective future of well-being and abundance, beyond survival.
About Katie Ka Vang
Katie Ka Vang (she/they) is a Hmong American playwright and storyteller. Her work explores the complexity of cultures & communities, diaspora, dis-ease, and transformation. Her work includes Again the musical, Fertile Grounds, WTF, Hmong Bollywood, 5:1 Meaning of Freedom; 6:2 Use of Sharpening, Fast FWD Motions, In Quarantine, FINAL ROUND, and Spirit Trust. Her work has been developed and presented at East West Players, Mixed Blood Theatre, Red Eye Theater, Pangea World Theater, Pillsbury House Theatre, Theater Mu, Leviathan Lab, Bushwick Starr, Brown University, the Royal Court Theatre, the Walker Art Center, Civic Ensemble, Out North Art House, and more. She is currently a 23/24 Constellation Fellow at the Center for Cultural Power working with Indigenous Roots, and she is part of the 2023/24 Jungle Theater Artist Cohort. She received the 22/23 McKnight and 19/20 Many Voices fellowship at the Playwrights' Center. She has also received support from Jerome Foundation, NET, Knight Foundation, NPN, MRAC, MSAB, and Coalition of Asian American Leaders. She was a member of East West Players 21-23 Playwright's Group. Katie holds an MFA in playwriting from Brown University. Visit katiekavang.com for more information.
About Theater Mu
Theater Mu (pronounced MOO) is one of the largest Asian American theater companies in the nation and the largest in the Midwest. Founded in 1992, Mu tells stories from the heart of the Asian American experience, presenting a fusion of traditional and contemporary artistic influences, which range from classics to up-and-coming voices in our community. Theater Mu’s continuing goal to celebrate and empower the Asian American community through theater is achieved through mainstage productions, emerging artist support, and educational outreach programs. Theater Mu is a member of the Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists, as well as a member of the Twin Cities Theatres of Color Coalition, proudly standing alongside New Native Theatre, Pangea World Theater, Penumbra Theatre, and Teatro Del Pueblo. Visit theatermu.org for more information.
Fellow 2024 awardees include: Andrea Assaf with Arab American National Museum (Dearborn); Marcus Elliot with Detroit Parks Coalition (Detroit); Terry Guest with Chicago Children’s Theatre (Chicago); and Edra Soto with The Sculpture Center (Cleveland).