Events in 2021

LHF GivingTuesday Campaign (November 17-December 7) (Video)

GivingTuesday is a day where people give to a cause that resonates with their hearts, a cause that they feel strongly about, and a cause that is important to them or their communities.

This year, LHF hopes to be that cause for you.  We need you to help us reconnect and rebuild all of our in-person programs across the US. Our summer camps have remained dormant for the past two summers due to the unprecedented pandemic that has gripped the world. Our communities have been isolated and our in-person programs have been sorely missed by our kids, parents and supporters. 

As vaccinations are available to those 5 years and older, LHF is excited about rebuilding, reconnecting, and rekindling the love for music, dance, and culture in our future generation of young Lao Americans.

For some communities, we will have to start over from the beginning, while others may just need a boost. How will LHF help get us back to live events? Our goal is to assist all 9 communities (San Diego, Fresno, Philadelphia, Rochester, Providence, Dallas/Fortworth, Charlotte, Midwest, and Alexandria) with their rebuilding efforts. This will include, based on the needs of the specific community:  flying out our music director and dance teachers to do mini camps prior to summer camp; helping plan summer camp for 2022; and/or helping to reach out and reignite the community’s interest in Lao culture once more. With $5,500, we can get all 9 programs up and running again and be ready for the first in person summer camp since the pandemic in the summer of 2022.  Every dollar will go directly into the rebuilding process as LHF is a volunteer based organization. All of our board members and officers are volunteers — all funds we raise go directly to supporting our programs.

You can support LHF in one of three ways:

1. Donate to our GivingTuesday campaign through Facebook (click here)
2. Donate to our GivingTuesday campaign through GoFundMe (click here)
3. Bid on items in our online auction (click here)

Cooking with LHF (September 25, 2021 at 6:00PM, Virtual Event)

September is the Lao Heritage Foundation’s anniversary.  To ensure the safety of our guests and community, LHF will celebrate our anniversary this year through an online cooking event.  

Food has always been at the heart of Lao culture.  We greet one another with “gin kow laew baw”  or have you eaten yet.  No celebration is complete without a big community feast.  To help LHF celebrate our 17th anniversary, we would like to invite everyone to come and cook with LHF.  Come find out why food is so essential to Lao culture.  We will teach you how to make a main dish, a jeow, and a dessert in our hour long class through zoom.  This is your chance to learn how to cook authentic Lao food.

This event is free and open to the public.  We will ask for requests and suggestions of what main dishes you, as the audience, want to learn how to cook as well as the jeow and dessert.  Follow us on social media or visit our website at https://lhfus.org/events to provide us with your input on the menu for the event.  You can also share you input at: https://padlet.com/niphasosouphom/1yhujsev6dvm5nsd

Reserve your free tickets today at:  https://cookingwithlhf.eventbrite.com

“Cooking with LHF” is the final event of the culture series hosted by the Lao Heritage Foundation as a service to the Lao community and supporters during this unprecedented time where we all need opportunities to celebrate and connect. We hope to offer various cultural events throughout the year.

Cooking Video

LHF Recipes

Lao Language Classes (July 5-August 5, 2021)

LHF is excited to annouce that we will be offering three Lao language classes this summer. All classes are free and open to the public. You must register for the classes and join the google classroom for the class that you want to enroll in. Once you join the google classroom, you will see the zoom link posted in the announcement. Classes will begin July 5th to August 5th.

The Art of Filmmaking – Screening of Lao Short Films (June 12, 2021) (Video)

The Lao Heritage Foundation (LHF) is very excited to partner with Lan Xan Short Films, to virtually showcase five unique films from young aspiring Lao directors on June 12, 2021, at 9:00 EST. The five short films range from stories about friendship, family, and self discovery in the Lao cultural context.  All of these films have been created and submitted by local Lao film makers and reflect the rich culture, skills, and perspectives of young artists in Laos. Join us to support and celebrate them.  The event will feature the screening of five short films and a Q and A session with the  directors.  All films are subtitled in English.  This is a free event and is open to the public.  Reserve tickets today.

The film screening is part of a film and culture series hosted by the Lao Heritage Foundation as a service to the Lao community and supporters during this unprecedented time where we all need opportunities to celebrate and connect. We hope to offer various cultural events throughout the year.

Donations are highly appreciated and will benefit programs in Laos through LHF and the Lan Xang Shorts Program.  We hope you are as excited as we are to celebrate these young aspiring creatives and look forward to seeing many familiar and new faces there!!!

About Lan Xang Shorts Program

‘LanXang Shorts’ is a Lao short film competition and festival held annually in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. ‘Lanxang’ means a million elephants. For its first inaugural competition in November of 2020, LanXang Shorts launched a short film competition as its core activity. In the following post-pandemic years, more activities will be added, such as talks, workshops, mentorship, and film screenings.

The short film competition consisted of two categories – one for professionals, and one for amateurs/new talents. The length of each film is between 7 – 15 minutes with no specific theme or genre. Each film was  shot on various different devices. Submission was free of charge and open to Lao nationals only (or at least key crew members were required to be Lao).

The first objective of the festival   is to introduce the festival to Lao people, specifically aspiring filmmakers to encourage and motivate new voices and expressions of art. The short film festival/short film competition has been absent in Laos for quite some time. In recent years, there were “ad hoc” sporadic short film competitions held to promote certain products, services or messages. The plan for ‘LanXang Shorts’ is to be an annual and official event, backed up by well-known filmmakers and officials to create a platform for young artists to learn from each other creating a community and exchange inspiration and ideas in the performances and arts.

The  second goal is to generate more interest in filmmaking for young people, and to revive the interest of those who were previously aspiring to be filmmakers but have stopped due to the absence of support and a venue to showcase their work.

Finally, the hope is to establish  ‘LanXang Shorts’ as a  well-recognized short film festival both in Laos and overseas by highlighting unique Lao voices and artists. The program will consist of various activities such as filmmaking workshop, mentorship, talks, local and internal film screenings, in addition to the film competition. LanXang Shorts wants to discover and nurture young local Lao talents.

Experience Lao Culture: Preserving our Heritage through the Arts with LHF (March 6, 2021)

The event was divided into two parts. In the first part, LHF shared about our mission, vision, and work as well as about our future events for 2021. In the second part, LHF shared about Laos, its history, culture, and traditions. If you missed the presentation, you can watch it below as well as the video about LHF that was not included in the presentation. We want to thank Catzie Vilayphonh for making the LHF video for us.

Presentation

Video about LHF