CLC plans cultural diversity event

Central Lakes College will host a free cultural diversity event Jan. 6 in Chalberg Theatre on the Brainerd campus featuring the founder of StirFry Seminars, Lee Mun Wah.

The event is billed as "an evening for talking to each other about racism." It will feature a showing of his 2003 film, "Last Chance for Eden," a six-part series on racism, sexism and heterosexism.

The program includes drumming and dancing by the students of Nay-Ah-Shing School on the Mille Lacs Reservation from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. followed by the featured speaker.

Co-sponsors are the Crow Wing County Human Rights Commission and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Corporate Commission.

Lee Mun Wah is an award-winning lecturer and trainer whose notoriety mushroomed after a national television program about him.

The exposure underscored his international credentials as a Chinese-American community therapist, documentary filmmaker, performing poet, Asian folktale artist and author. His 25-year career includes teaching special education in the San Francisco United School District.

Lee Mun Wah's 1993 film on Asian Americans, "Stolen Ground," won the San Francisco International Film Festival Certificate of Merit Award for Best Bay Area Documentary. His second film, "The Color of Fear," won the National Education Media Network Best Social Documentary Award in 1995.

In 1998, "Walking Each Other Home" won the Cindy International Film Festival's Silver Medal for Best Social Issues.

His teaching career includes work as an author of Satori programs, a comprehensive phonics, reading and mathematics program for at-risk students with learning disabilities.

Lee Mun Wah's appearance coincides with Jan. 4-7 training for community leaders arranged with the help of a $7,500 Diversity and Anti-Racism Initiative Grant to Central Lakes College from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.