Spoken Word/Poetry Workshop at Edison

Students in Ms. Knowlen's class at Edison High School had the opportunity to work with nationally recognized Hmong spoken word/hip-hop artist and community activist Tou Saiko Lee on May 18, 20 and 22. Students learned about spoken word and hip-hop as a way to express who they are and where they come from and to communicate their experiences. They put together movement, written lines, sensory details and metaphor to create and perform their own spoken word piece. To read more click on: http://edison.mpls.k12.mn.us/26May2009.html

Tou Saiko was born in 1979 in the Nongkai Refugee Camp in Thailand. He and his parents lived in Syracuse and Providence before coming to the Twin Cities in 1991. All of his other siblings, including his brother Vong who performs alongside Tou Saiko as Knowstalgic in the hip-hop group Delicious Venom, were born in the United States. As director of Creative Development and Outreach at CHAT (Center for Hmong Arts and Talent), a St. Paul non-profit organization that aims to nurture Hmong artists, Tou Saiko organizes the ICE Open Mic series at Metro State University, coordinates a number of after-school community classes and programs, and helps to organize the annual Hmong Arts and Music Festival. He also travels to California once a month to work with Hmong youth in Sacramento, one of the other large Hmong communities in America.