Chase Lecture Series 2025
The Naomi C. Chase Lecture in Children's Literature honors the memory of Dr. Naomi Chase, a classroom teacher who became professor at the University of Minnesota, and was especially passionate about empowering children as readers and writers.
The 2025 Chase Lecture's topic will be Refugeography: A Kid from Viet Nam Turns Invisibility Into Stories, featuring spoken word poet, picture book writer, and author Bao Phi. Bao will briefly talk about his journey as a kid from a large, poor, Vietnamese refugee family who loved books and art, to being a lifelong student of literature from historically marginalized communities, becoming a father, and how this impacted his work in the community as well as his own books. Following the presentation, he'll take questions from the audience.
This event is free and open to the public, it is co-sponsored by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, the College of Education and Human Development, the University of Minnesota’s Children’s Literature Research collection, home of the Kerlan, and Kerlan Friends.
Schedule is as follows:
- 5:30-6 p.m. Reception
- 6 p.m. Welcome and Introduction
- 6:10-6:45 p.m. Chase Lecture
- 6:45-7:15 p.m. Q&A and discussion
- 7:15-8 p.m. Book signing
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Date(s)
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Location
222 21st Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55455
United States - Location details and map
Bio
Bao Phi
Bao Phi is the author of four children’s books. His first children’s book, A Different Pond, received six starred reviews and won multiple awards including a Caldecott Honor, an Ezra Jack Keats Honor, Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association award for best picture book, the Minnesota Book Award for picture books, and the Charlotte Zolotow Award for excellence in children’s book writing. His second children’s book, My Footprints, illustrated by Basia Tran, was called “a timeless and important book that deals with the fallout of bullying and the power of a child’s imagination to overcome with the strength and support of a loving family” by the School Library Journal.
In addition to his contributions to children's literature, Bao Phi is a spoken word artist, two-time Minnesota Grand Slam champion and a National Poetry Slam finalist. His poems and essays are widely published in numerous publications including Screaming Monkeys and Spoken Word Revolution Redux.
He has two collections of poems, Sông I Sing and Thousand Star Hotel, the latter of which was nominated for the Minnesota Book Award, named by NPR as one of the best books of 2017, and was chosen as 2017’s best poetry book of the year by San Francisco State’s Poetry Center.
Bao Phi's books
You Are Life
Hello, Mandarin Duck!
My Footprints
A Different Pond