May Lee-Yang
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Contact Information
contact name: May Lee-Yang
email: may_lee_yang@hotmail.com
Experience
May Lee-Yang is a playwright, prose writer, poet, and performance artist.Despite no experience and bad acting, she got her first acting gig at eighteen. Since then, she has gone on to perform her writing as a solo artist as well as a member of the spoken word group, FIRE (Free Inspiring Rising Elements). Her plays include SIA(B), STIR-FRIED POP CULTURE,and a solo show, THE CHILD'S HOUSE.Beyond obligatory statistics, she is a fan of Nintendo games, likes all things chubby, and considers food a hobby.She received a B.A. in English from the Universityof Minnesota (Twin Cities).
Awards
Recipient of the MN State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant for Theater (2009) and Literature (2005)
Recipient of National Performance Network Creation Fund(2008)
Recipient of the Playwright Center’s Many Voices Residency Fellowship (2008,2002)
Recipient of a Naked Stages Fellowship through Intermedia Arts(2008)
Winner of the Loft Literary Center’s Mentorship Program in Non-Fiction (2005)
Recipient of the University of MN’s Anna Augusta von Helmholtz Phelan Scholarship for Creative Writing (2001)
Exhibitions/Performance History
May 29-June7, 2009- The full-length version of my show SIA(B) premiers at the Gremlin Theater (St. Paul, MN).Produced through Kaotic Good Productions and The Center for Hmong Arts and Talent.
March2009 -Staged reading of a play-in-progress, THE BROKEN BED at the Playwright Center
November 6-8, 2008 - My solo show, THE CHILD'S HOUSE premiered at Intermedia Arts as part of the Naked Stages 2008 Performances.
September 12-October 5, 2008 -My one-act play SIA(B)preimeredback-to-back with ASIAMNESIA for a showcase entitled UNDER THE PORCELAIN MASK: ASIAN AMERICAN WOMEN SPEAK OUT!
January2008 - The Center for Hmong Art and Talent (CHAT)produced my play STIR-FRIED POP CULTURE, which went on to tour throughout the Midwest.
March 2007 - performed a reading of Ka Vang's short play, DISCONNECT, at the Un-Named Hmong and Lao Reading Series, "Hmong Women Undress/Redress" (Loft Literary Center, Minneapolis, MN)
February 2007 - curated and performed in "Naked Words" as part of the Un-Named Hmong and Lao Reading Series (Loft Literary Center, Minneapolis, MN)
December 2006 - Featured artist in SASE/Intermedia Arts's Women of Color Reading Series (Patrick's Cabaret, Minneapolis, MN)
October 2006 - performed poetry at Mankato State University's Asian Pacific American Conference (Mankato, MN)
September 2006 - performed a reading for Ka Vang's short play, "Disconnect" at the Women of Color Reading, "Mind, Myth, and Motion," (Patrick's Cabaret, Minneapolis, MN)
2002-2004 - Member of the Twin Cities-based spoken word group, F.I.R.E. (Free Inspiring Rising Elements). Performed at the Fringe Festival, Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis Mosaic, KFAI Radio, the Hotbed Festival, St. Olaf College, Metropolitan State University, University of Wisconsin (River Falls), University of Minnesota (Twin Cities), Hamline University, and other venues.
Publications
“The Year My Family Decided Not to Have Papaya Salad and Egg Rolls for Thanksgiving,” Cooking From the Heart: Hmong Cooking in America (2009)
“Crossings,” Water~Stone Literary Review (2008)
“The Second Wife’s Daughter,” Fiction on a Stick, Milkweed Editions (2008)
“Chicken Healing,” “Fly Swatter,” and “Why I Have the Jan Brady Syndrome,” Unplug Magazine, 2007
“Farmer’s Market” and “What We Lived On,” The 2008 St. Paul Almanac, 2007
“Farmer’s Market,” Cheers to Muses, Asian American Women Artists’ Association, 2007
“What I Brought to America,” “Correspondence From Laos,” and “Alien,” Bakka Magazine, July 2007
“How I Lost My Name,” Sounds in This House: 2002-2005 National Book Foundation Camp Anthology, National Book Foundation, 2006
“Keys,” To Sing Along the Way: Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-Territorial Days to the Present, New Rivers Press, 2006
“Slanted,” The 2007 St. Paul Almanac, 2006
“How I Lost My Name,” Asian American Poetry, 2005
“Keys,” “Statistics,” “Things I Lost Along the Way to Life,” and “The Year My Family Decided Not to Have Papaya Salad and Egg Rolls for Thanksgiving,” Paj Ntaub Voice, 2004
“The Voice” and “Hmongspeak,” Bamboo Among the Oaks: Contemporary Writing by Hmong Americans, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2002
Biographical Information
Country of Citizenship:
United States
Birth Place:
Ban Vinai, Thailand
Birth Date:
February 27, 1979
Gender:
Female
Active Place:
St. Paul
Minnesota County:
Ramsey
Artist Information
Roles
Playwright, Literary