Workshops
What does your voice say about you? What would HMong writing look like if it were developed today? What can music teach us about a tonal language?
Our workshops reimagine and explore questions that inspire curiosity and invite new ways of thinking about the HMong language. Blending creativity, community, and research, each workshop encourages participants to reimagine voice, language, identity, and expression.
Finding Your Voice is a discovery workshop that invites participants to explore the many possibilities of the human voice. Through reflection, guided activities, and creative exploration, we'll discover how voice, breath, identity, and expression come together in ways that are both deeply personal and universally human.
Guided Explorations
Voice & Identity - Explore what our voices reveal about who we are.
Breath & Expression - Examine the many ways we breathe and how breath shapes communication and expression.
Voice Colors - Discover the rich variety of vocal qualities and expressive possibilities.
Creative Exploration - Vocal experimentation and shared discovery.
The Sounds of HMong is an experimental workshop exploring the relationships between phonation, music, and tone. Drawing from ongoing research, interactive demonstrations, and discussion, participants are invited to discover new perspectives on the Hmong language while exploring how speech, music, and the human voice intersect.
Guided Explorations
Foundations of HMong Phonology - Build a shared understanding of the sound system of HMong by exploring consonants, vowels, tone, and syllable structure. This introduction provides the foundation for the ideas explored throughout the workshop.
Voice, Phonation, and Tone - Discover how the human voice creates meaning through phonation, pitch, and vocal quality, and why these features are central to the HMong language.
Music and Language - What can music teach us about a tonal language? Explore the connections between melody, rhythm, and speech while examining HMong from a musical perspective.
Emerging Perspectives - Drawing from ongoing research, participants will examine new ideas about HMong phonetics, phonology, music, and tone while exploring questions that continue to shape future research.
Retracing the RPA is a reimagination workshop that invites participants to explore the history, design, and evolution of the Hmong Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA). Drawing from original sources, historical documents, and interactive activities, we'll retrace the decisions that shaped the writing system while asking new questions about language, writing, and the many ways a language can be represented.
Guided Explorations
The Origins of the RPA - Explore the people, partnerships, and historical circumstances that led to the creation of the Hmong Romanized Popular Alphabet.
Finding Smalley- What happened during those few days when the founders came together? Through original sources, we'll piece together the conversations, ideas, and decisions that shaped one of the most influential writing systems in Hmong history.
Reimagining the RPA - What would the HMong writing system look like if it were developed today? Through collaborative activities and discussion, participants will explore the many choices involved in designing a writing system.