CSEAS Fall Lecture Series: Tou SaiK Lee

MA candidate in Southeast Asian Studies

University of Wisconsin Madison

Title: "Hmong Indigenous Revitalization with Rhythm and Poetry"

Campus Life 100

Tou SaiK’s presentation will be delivered through diasporic storytelling, rhythmic expressions of cultural roots and performances of resistance. Lee speaks of his journey to understand his cultural identity through the intergenerational performance duo with his late great grandma Youa Chang and relearning his native language through the music of Hip Hop. Song lyrics that call for disenfranchised Hmong populations to collectively advocate for basic human rights, be rooted in tradition and awareness of a lack of access for opportunities. The Hmong narrative of surviving oppressive societies has a strong connection not just to the music but to the message of something from nothing where disadvantaged communities can rise from poverty and persevere. Lee’s showcase highlights the global influence of Hip Hop on Hmong youth in multiple countries. Research reflects how displaced ethnicities have utilized Hip Hop as an effective way to revitalize language and have resistant cultural pride. Tou SaiK will reference ‘every day acts’ and creative arts as movements of cultural preservation and revitalization. There will be live performances of Spoken Word Poetry and Hip Hop.

Tou SaiK Lee is a Hip Hop artist, storyteller and spoken word poet from St. Paul, Minnesota. Tou SaiK is currently a graduate student in the master’s program of Southeast Asian Studies at UW Madison with a focus on Hmong indigenous identity of Southeast Asia. He founded Street Stops and Mountain Tops which connects teaching artists and organizers from the U.S. to work with Hmong students in villages and orphanages of Southeast Asia. Lee received the Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship in 2016 to focus on research of the Hmong diaspora including communities in Vietnam, Australia, China and Thailand of how Hmong use traditional and contemporary arts as effective ways to revitalize culture. He released his first Hmong language Hip Hop album titled Ntiaj Teb Koom Tes - Unified Worldwide Summer of 2021. Tou SaiK was selected as a featured speaker by TEDx Minneapolis in 2021 about his current initiatives. Lee's talk titled “Reclaiming cultural identity and language through hip hop” can be found on YouTube.