AWARD-WINNING HMONG ARTIST FEATURED AT THE MN FRINGE FESTIVAL

(Minneapolis, MN) On August 4-14, 2011, May Lee-Yang will be presenting her show Ten Reasons Why I’d Be a Bad Porn Star at the 2011 MN Fringe Festival. Ten Reasons is a comedy that uses storytelling, on-site sex toy demonstrations, and cultural competency training to explore porn, relationships, and how to talk about sex in the Hmong culture (a definite no-no).

“I was inspired to write the show because I used to be a sexual health educator,” says Lee-Yang. “Then there was a time when I started selling sex toys on the side to supplement my income as an artist. Plus, I’ve always been fascinated by how the people around me talk about sex (or not)."

Ten Reasons comes to the Twin Cities fresh off a run at the Third National Asian American Theater Festival and Conference in Los Angeles, California.

“The response in L.A. was great,” says Lee-Yang, “I was really honored to showcase my work at the Festival as well as have a Hmong voice represented on the national level.”

May Lee-Yang is an award-winning playwright, poet, prose writer, and performance artist. She has been hailed by Twin Cities Metro Magazine as being “on the way to becoming one of the most powerful and colorful voices in local theater.”  She was recently awarded a prestigious Bush Leadership Fellowship, a two-year initiative that will support her own work in theater. Her previous awards include fellowships from the MN State Arts Board, the Playwright Center, the Midwestern Voices and Visions Award, and the National Performance Network.

In 2010, Lee-Yang’s show Confessions of a Lazy Hmong Woman was a Fringe hit selling out at all her five shows, making it one of the Fringe Festival’s top-selling shows by venue. Ten Reasons Why I’d Be a Bad Porn Star is one of 168 shows playing over eleven days as part of the MN Fringe Festival’s mission to connect adventurous artists with adventurous audience members.

Ten Reasons Why I’d Be a Bad Porn Star will be playing at Intermedia Arts at 2822 Lyndale Avenue, Minneapolis, MN. Show dates are August 4 at 8:30 PM, August 7 at 7 PM, August 9 at 5:30 PM, August 13 at 2:30 PM, and August 14 at 7 PM.

Ticket prices are $12 each plus attendees are expected to purchase a $4 Minnesota Fringe Festival button.

For more information on the Minnesota Fringe Festival, go to www.fringefestival.org or call (866) 811 4111. For more information on May Lee-Yang’s work, go to www.lazyhmongwoman.com.