Join Thea Yang for an exploration of the Asian American experience through the history and stories of the Hmong people. Drawing from the Industrial Commons’ Hometown Walkabout program and her own lived experience. Thea will share the history of the Hmong, their involvement in the Secret War in Laos, the refugee experience that followed, and the journey of rebuilding their lives in the united States. The presentation will connect this history to the Hmong experience in Western North Carolina and the Hmong communities today.

Theay Yang is the Values and Culture Director at the Industrial Commons, where she co-leads Common Ground, an enterprise within TIC’s Community Engagement Field, with Leslie McKesson. Thea came to the United States with her family as refugees in 1989 and settled in NC in 1993. She is a graduate of WPCC and holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.