Learning from Place: Little Mekong Cultural District

St. Paul’s Little Mekong Cultural District invites participants into a vibrant Southeast Asian cultural corridor shaped by migration, resilience, and entrepreneurship along University Avenue. The experience begins at XIA Books & Cafe, where community leader Va-Megn Thoj welcomes participants and grounds the journey in the story of the Mekong River and its connection to identity, history, and place. From there, participants walk through a neighborhood alive with murals, shops, and community stories. Along the way, elders from Vietnamese Social Services share reflections of pride, gratitude, and courage, including stories from those who came to the United States as refugees of war.
At the Hmong Cultural Center, participants deepen their understanding of the importance, and the difficulty, of preserving oral-based histories. If scheduling permits, they may also have the opportunity to hear the sound of the qeej, a traditional Hmong instrument whose breath, rhythm, and movement carry ancestral voice and ceremony. The journey continues through local restaurants, where dishes such as somlaw kao kou, a savory Cambodian soup with green papaya, eggplant, and pumpkin, evoke memories of family, tradition, and foodways across generations and borders. The experience closes with group reflection, inviting participants to connect these sensory and human experiences to a deeper understanding of community, culture, and belonging.
This experience is presented in collaboration with Asian Economic Development Association (AEDA), a non-profit organization whose mission is to create economic and cultural opportunities for Twin Cities Asian American.