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Tag: Sandra Shackelford

Launched! A Portrait of Grief and Courage: Hmong Oral Histories and Folktales

March 3, 2024 / / 0 Comments

One of the most moving events we could hope for was our December 2023 launch of Sandra Shackelford’s A Portrait of Grief and Courage: Hmong Oral Histories and Folktales, translated and transcribed by May Lee Lor and Ma Lee Lor, and with an introduction by Pao Lor.  Feel free to peruse our photo gallery here, or watch the YouTube video,

This historic collection of oral histories, folktales, and photographs is on sale now at Lion’s Mouth Bookstore (Green Bay), WordHaven BookHouse (Sheboygan). You can order a copy directly from the Teaching Press here. 

 

Historic Book Captures A Portrait of Brown County’s First Immigrants

December 13, 2023 / / 0 Comments

UW-Green Bay’s Teaching Press launches rare collection of oral storytelling and photographs on December 13

Read all about our new title in Inside UW-Green Bay News

Click here to purchase your copy of A Portrait of Grief and Courage: Hmong Oral Histories and Folktales today! 

 

 

A woman stands at a window

Who is Pa Lee?

December 11, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Pa Lee was born in a village called Khang Kay. She got married and had two children in Longcheng, living under a cruel communist regime for 14 years. Pa Lee’s family feared retribution from the Viet Cong because her husband had worked with the U.S. military, so they decided it would be safer to live in the jungle, poor and hungry, but at least away from the Viet Cong. They lived this solitary life of fear and poverty for six years before Pa Lee’s husband was shot by the Viet Cong, so she chose to take their children to Thailand. It was a long and difficult journey, but they were successful. Pa Lee remarried, had a humble house, and survived on foraging, but they had to leave when Pa Lee’s second husband was killed by the Viet Cong. She now had three children to take care of as the family fled west, crossing treacherous rivers and being shot at by soldiers. Pa Lee and her children survived the jungle and the war; they made it to a refugee camp in Thailand, where they were finally taken care of and kept safe until the Viet Cong pressed in. When she resettled in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in the 1980s-90s, her encounter with artist Sandra Shackelford changed both of their lives. 

Her story continues in A Portrait of Grief and Courage: Hmong Oral Histories and Folktales, documented and photographed by Sandra Shackelford, translated by May Lee Lor, transcribed by Ma Lee Lor.

A Portrait of Grief and Courage: Hmong Oral Histories and Folktales, by Sandra Shackelford, with translations by May Lee Lor and transcriptions by Ma Lee Lor, is now on sale. Click this link for purchase and pick up information. 

 

Who is Sandra Shackelford?

December 10, 2023 / / 0 Comments

 

Sandra Shackelford in 2023.

Sandra Shackelford has long been a proponent of racial justice. When her art professor chastised a student due to his race, she boycotted the university. When Emmett Till was lynched, she was among the crowds calling for justice. When Shackelford’s newspaper and recreation center were burned down by the KKK, she moved from the frontlines, but she did not stop fighting.

She moved to Green Bay and joined a program to learn about Hmong refugees and their transition to life in America. Again, she found grim and harrowing stories of isolation and destitution. But she also found glimmers of hope, people who fought and struggled to create better lives for themselves and their children.

Sandra Shackelford in 1991.

Sandra Shackelford has compiled the stories of these Hmong refugees in her book, A Portrait of Grief and Courage: Hmong Oral Histories and Folktales. These are the stories as told by the refugees, detailing their previous lives in Southeast Asia, as well as their new  lives in America, as seen in drawings, photographs, and observations by Sandra herself.  

A Portrait of Grief and Courage: Hmong Oral Histories and Folktales, by Sandra Shackelford, with translations by May Lee Lor and transcriptions by Ma Le Lor, is now on sale. Click this link for purchase and pick up information. 

 

I Believe in Voice: An Interview with Sandra Shackelford

December 10, 2023 / / 0 Comments
A Portrait of Grief and Courage: Hmong Oral Histories and Folktales, by Sandra Shackelford, with translations by May Lee Lor and transcriptions by Ma Le Lor, is now on sale. Click this link for purchase and pick up information. 

Interviewer’s note: Sandra’s written responses have been edited to include further details and quotes that she provided during our verbal interview. Interviewer’s notes have been marked in brackets. All other words, while occasionally adjusted for flow, are Sandra’s own.

Sandra Shackelford, 1991.

You’ve been fighting for civil rights for decades — a battle that continues even now. What drew you, a white woman from Green Bay, Wisconsin, toward amplifying marginalized voices?

I was a junior in the Academy, an all-girl high school in Green Bay. I was popular. I was invited to so many dances and proms I ran out of space filling up my many dance cards. What I wasn’t was your standard “smart.” I hadn’t been able to read until the seventh grade. [Interviewer’s note: At the behest of her trained ballerina and cosmetologist mother, Sandra’s early education lay primarily in the performing arts — dancing and singing — for which she received both acclaim and the disapproval of the nuns at her Catholic school.] Later on in my educational sojourn, I had a surprise.

That’s when my Latin teacher called me aside after class. I expected to be reprimanded for something.

Instead, she said this: “Sandra, you’re not very bright, but you’ve got a nice personality. I know a place that could use a girl like you.”

My life changed forever. Continue reading

I Would Love to Stay Here!

Meet the Interns: Promotion, Publicity, and A Portrait…

December 10, 2023 / / 0 Comments

The Teaching Press had 21 students working as interns and staff in Fall 2023. We’re featuring their work in small batches—the same  way we print books at the Press! 

This team of Fall 2023 interns focused on creating engagement and interest in our books, especially our 2022 titles Call Me Morgue and Wandering Toft Point: A Nature Journal. They brainstormed memes and campaigns—one even took a road trip up to Toft Point for blog and social media content.  They also fact-checked and copyedited the page proofs of A Portrait of Grief and Courage: Hmong Oral Histories and Folktales.  for which they created the Media Kit, designing the project web page, writing  blog posts, and conducting  the author interview.

 

A book cover depicting a Hmong woman holding a picture

Launching in December 2023: Landmark book of Hmong Oral Histories and Folktales

October 10, 2023 / / 0 Comments

A book cover depicting a Hmong woman holding a pictureLaunching in December 2023, A Portrait of Grief and Courage documents the lives of Hmong refugees in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in the 1980s and 1990s.

Forced to flee from their homes to escape The Secret War in Laos, many Hmong fled to Thailand as refugees, then to the U.S. The first Hmong families arrived in the US in 1975, and thousands soon followed.

Amid the challenges and triumphs of a new life, oral storytelling initially thrived,  providing cultural salvation, safety, and a sense of belonging for Hmong refugees.  However, over time, its role, value, and relevance diminished.

Now, in this unique collection of oral histories, documentary artist Sandra Shackelford— along with collaborator and interpreter May Lee Lor and translator and transcriber Ma Lee Lor— captures the storytellers, storytelling, folktales, and harrowing journeys of these early Hmong residents in Northeastern Wisconsin.  In 1991, when a woman  in a freezing apartment implored the author to “give me the words to tell my grief,” Shackelford listened.  Readers, too, will be moved by the stories in this haunting, yet hopeful, book.

A Portrait of Grief and Courage: Hmong Oral Histories and Folktales, by Sandra Shackelford, with translations by May Lee Lor and transcriptions by Ma Lee Lor, is now on sale. Click this link for purchase and pick up information. 

 

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