Hmong family focus of ‘Big Read’ program at U.S. Marshals Museum

The U.S. Marshals Museum in Fort Smith received a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA), in partnership with Arts Midwest to help fund the Big Read program. The museum is one of 62 nationwide, and the only recipient in Arkansas, to receive funds for the 2024-25 program cycle.

Big Read grant programming is centered around a book from the NEA Big Read Library, with the goal of inspiring meaningful conversations, celebrating local creativity, elevating a wide variety of voices and perspectives, and building stronger connections across communities.

The program grants range from $5,000 to $20,000 to organizations to support community reading programs designed around a single NEA Big Read book. In addition to funding for purchasing the books themselves, each grant recipient is provided with resources that include outreach materials.

The 2024-25 theme is “Where We Live,” and the USMM program will feature the book “The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir,” chronicling the story of a family’s post-Vietnam War journey from Southeast Asia to the United States.

The museum had several books to choose from for the program, Leslie Higgins, chief programs officer for the museum. They chose “The Latehomecomer” because it could connect with the experiences many in the Fort Smith area had coming to Fort Smith and Fort Chaffee after the Vietnam War, she said.

This grant is being administered with the help of many partners throughout the community, including:
• Bookish: An Indie Shop For Folks Who Read
• University of Arkansas at Fort Smith
• Fort Smith Museum of History
• UAFS Hmong Student Association
• Fort Smith Public Library
• UAFS Vietnamese Student Association
• Fort Smith Regional Art Museum

NEA Big Read programs vary and can be as short as a week or as long as several months. Beyond discussions of the book, organizations may choose to include a kick-off event, invite the author for a visit, or have other events inspired by the content and themes of the book, including panel discussions, lectures, film screenings, art exhibitions, theatrical and musical performances, poetry slams, writing workshops and contests, and community storytelling events, according to the Big Read program.

The museum’s program will feature more than 30 Big Read programs in Fort Smith and surrounding communities in March and April, including an opening ceremony March 7, book club meetings, and live performances, in conjunction with an exhibit at the USMM exploring the Vietnamese experience in Fort Smith. A complete list of programs will be available beginning in December.

“We wanted to do this as a way to bring the community together,” Higgins said.