Yellow rain : poems / Mai Der Vang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vang, Mai Der, 1981- author.

Series:

Sister Mariella Gable series

[Sister Mariella Gable series]

Standardized Title:

Poems. Selections

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Poetry.

Hmong poetry.

Hmong (Asian people)--Poetry.

Hmong (Asian people).

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

206 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis, Minnesota : Graywolf Press, [2021]

Summary:

In this staggering work of documentary, poetry, and collage, Mai Der Vang reopens a wrongdoing that deserves a new reckoning. As the United States abandoned them at the end of the Vietnam War, many Hmong refugees recounted stories of a mysterious substance that fell from planes during their escape from Laos starting in the mid-1970s. This substance, known as "yellow rain," caused severe illnesses and thousands of deaths. These reports prompted an investigation into allegations that a chemical biological weapon had been used against the Hmong in breach of international treaties. A Cold War scandal erupted, wrapped in partisan debate around chemical arms development versus control. And then, to the world's astonishment, American scientists argued that yellow rain was the feces of honeybees defecating en masse--still held as the widely accepted explanation. The truth of what happened to the Hmong, to those who experienced and suffered yellow rain, has been ignored and discredited.Integrating archival research and declassified documents, Yellow Rain calls out the erasure of a history, the silencing of a people who at the time lacked the capacity and resources to defend and represent themselves. In poems that sing and lament, that contend and question, Vang restores a vital narrative in danger of being lost, and brilliantly explores what it means to have access to the truth and how marginalized groups are often forbidden that access. --amazon.com.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: The Fact of the Matter Is the Consequence of Ugly Deaths

Anthem for Taking Back

They Think Our Killed Ones Cannot Speak to Us

A Body Always Yours

Ill of the Dubious

When the Poison Fell, Before 1979

A Daub of Tree Swallows as Aerial Ash

Case Studies in Escape, Post-1975

Fewer Hmong Are Dying Now Than in the Past

Signal for the Way Out

Self-Portrait Together as CBW Questionnaire

Composition 1

Blood Cooperation

Specimens from Ban Vinai Camp, 1983

Authorization to Depart Ravaged Homeland as Biomedical Sample

Arriving as Lost

Ever Tenuous

Futile to Find You

Procedures in Hunt of Wreckage

Disfigures

Request for Furthermore

We Can't Confirm Yellow Rain Happened, We Can't Confirm It Didn't

Composition 2

Subterfuge

This Demands the Vengeance of a Wolf

Agent Orange Commando Lava

Toxicology Conference Proposal

Smear of Petals

Syndrome Sleep Death Sudden

Skin as a Vehicle for Experimentation

A Moment Still Waiting for You

For the Nefarious

Composition 3

The Culpable

Sverdlovsk

Malediction

Never to Have Had Your Song Blessed

Notes in Rebuttal: What They May Have Known about the Possibility

All of a Sudden, Yellow Spots

Recantation for the Quieting

Il/Logic, Fully Unvetted: A Makeshift Analysis of the Behavior of Southeast Asian Honeybees

Prayer to the Redwood

Allied with the Bees

Composition 4

Noxious

Orderly Wrap-Up of CBW Investigation

Of the Ash

Vigil for the Missing

The Shaman Asks about Yellow Rain

Refugee, Walking Is the Most Human of All

Revolt of Bees

Composition 5

Burn Copies

Diary Notes from Meeting on September 13, 1983

For as Long as a Mountain Can Ascend

Subject: ROI

How Far for the Small Ones

Monument

Sorrowed

Manifesto of a Drum

And Yet Still More.

Notes:

Series information from College of Saint Benedict website.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 183-184).

ISBN:

1644450658

9781644450659

OCLC:

1227086342