VADNAIS HEIGHTS, Minn. — Like many people, a Vadnais Heights man discovered a new hobby during the pandemic: LEGO.
Greg Rhodes latest LEGO project was creating a Hmong story cloth, which is an art form using "paj ntaub" or needlework to tell a story. Rhodes' project was about the pain and resilience the Hmong fleeing Laos after the Secret War.
It's intricate and he said he had to modify some LEGO parts like the qeej, a traditional Hmong instrument or the skirt of a traditional Hmong outfit.
Rhodes is married to a Hmong woman who gifted him his first story cloth almost 30 years ago. He is also a pastor with a mostly Hmong congregation.
Rhodes called this a love letter to the Hmong.
"As a white man in America, who grew up very white and with a lot of cultural blindness over these years and decades, I've learned so much to appreciate about people who not just look different but their culture is different," Rhodes said. "I understand this is not my story, this is my wife’s story. It's stories of people that I love and so I had to understand that I had to approach this with caution."
Rhodes plans to create a limited run of 200 Hmong mini-figures as he calls it, to sell online with all of the profits going to the Hmong Museum in Saint Paul. He has also launched a new website focusing on creating video tutorials and free downloads to help people build their own Hmong LEGO creations, in hopes Hmong children can begin to see themselves in modern day toys.
"I had one mom yesterday, a good friend of ours, she wanted to bring her 6-year-old boy over and talk about Hmong history using this paj ntaub and to teach him about history in toys that he plays with all the time," Rhodes said.
To learn more about Hmong story cloths, check out this story:
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