(warm upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to "Prairie Pulse."

Coming up a little bit later in the show, we'll learn about pottery making from Butch Pavlacky.

But first, joining me now is Sacred Mauricio, the social media manager and vendor coordinator of the Fargo Asian Night Market.

Sacred, thanks for joining us today.

- Thank you for having me.

- As we get started, you're also the co-founder of the event, and we're gonna talk about that more later, but tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.

- Yeah, so I actually grew up in the Bay Area of California, but I moved to Fargo around middle school about 10 years ago, and I attended NDSU to get my bachelor's in art, where I also met my fellow co-founders of the Asian Night Market.

We were all attending NDSU at the time.

- Well, okay, so that's what we're here to talk about.

Tell us what is the Fargo Asian Night Market and when does it happen?

- Yeah, at its base, it is a vendor event featuring Asian American and Pacific Islander vendors as well as live performances, which we introduced last year.

It occurs in May, this year it'll be May 30th at the Fargo Air Museum from 4:00 to 9:00 PM.

- Okay.

Well, let's talk first about your role with the event and how you became involved with it and helped found it.

- Yeah.

I met my fellow co-founders through NDSU's Asian Student Organization, which was started by Hannah Flohr, and they had already came up with the idea of the Asian Night Market and invited me to join the team.

I actually joined the first year as an artist.

I created a video where I interviewed local Asian American businesses and presented that video at the event.

Yeah, that's kind of how I got started in it.

- Well now, so why did you pick May as the month to hold the event?

- So May is actually nationally known as AAPI Heritage Month.

It celebrates the contributions and accomplishments of AAPI people.

- Mm-hmm.

And so how long has the event been going on now?

- This year will actually be our fifth year, which is kind of unreal to think about.

- Mm-hmm.

So in the five years, what have you seen change with it?

- We have grown substantially.

We actually started our event at the Plains Art Museum.

That first year was planned in just about two to three weeks, which is (chuckles) a very short amount of time, whereas now we take the whole year to plan it.

The first year we had about 14 vendors, and this year we've got over 40.

So we've grown our number of vendors.

We've started to take sponsorships after our first couple years, and we have started to create sort of a community.

We have vendors who have been there all five years, so it's a pleasure to see them year after year and see even how their businesses have grown.

- Okay.

Well, so what is the mission of the Asian Night Market?

- Yeah, our mission is focused on uniting the community, both the AAPI community as well as Fargo-Moorhead as a whole, celebrating the accomplishments and the contributions of these businesses, organizations, these individuals in our area, and just having like a fun night to celebrate altogether.

- For those who may not know, what is a night market?

- Yeah, so our night market is based on traditional night markets that are often seen in Asia.

Oftentimes you'll see them kind of just on the streets with a bunch of food vendors, like a wide variety of vendors selling traditional clothing, little knickknacks.

I think street food is the top thing that people think of when they think of night markets so that's something we are pretty big on, like trying to get as many food vendors we can get.

People really look forward to getting some of the food every year.

- Oh, sure.

Any event should be about food, right?

No.

(Sacred laughs) How does a night market differ from something like a farmer's market?

- Yeah, I think it's just kind of the vibe.

It is very similar to a farmer's market, especially because of how farmer's markets have grown over the years to have more artisans and such.

But that is something we focus on.

We have a lot of artisans, a lot of crafters, as well as our food vendors, our bakers, and then we also have our live performances.

- Okay.

Well, we may get to some of that here in a minute, but you know, who is the team sort of behind the night market?

You mentioned a name or two here already.

Is this a volunteer organization or do you have paid staff?

How is it set up?

- Yeah, so our whole team, we volunteer our time to host this event.

It's truly a passion project for every single one of us.

We have about nine people on our team right now with myself, Hannah Flohr, and Shayna Karuman being the co-founders.

Our first year was also founded with Phannara Kim and Lily Chang, but right now our team consists of Chelsea Steffes, Ann Nguyen, Erica Feldhege, Damian Webb, Allen Sterling, and Lauren Schiefert.

- Well, I mean you told us a little bit, obviously May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Month, but why did the team really decide to start a local night market in Fargo?

- Yeah, so the story of Asian Night Market kind of begins with a different event.

The Lunar New Year celebrations that was started at NDSU, the co-founders that I had mentioned before, they had all come together following the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of AAPI hatred and feelings of loneliness and ostracization.

So they came together to host the Lunar New Year celebration at NDSU, I believe back in 2022, just to sort of reconnect with their culture, reconnect with other AAPI people.

And after the success of that event, they wanted to reach further than the walls of NDSU.

So they had come up with the idea of having an event to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month.

- Mm-hmm.

You mentioned vendors, was a middle moment of 14 to 40, I think you said, as it's grown, but how many vendors, you know, can you hold?

I mean, can it grow?

You know, sounds like there's been a steady increase over the years.

- Oh yeah, there's been quite an increase from 14 to over 40 now, each year we try our best to recruit new vendors, to have our vendors come back every year.

We attend other vendor events and reach out to new businesses that we see to try to grow that number.

- Well, is there certain criteria you're looking for when a vendor approaches you or you look for one?

- Yeah, we have just the criteria that we ask only Asian American and Pacific Islander vendors apply just so we can focus on our mission on highlighting those AAPI businesses and organizations.

But otherwise, we try our best to accept all of these AAPI vendors.

One thing we do ask them is that they provide some sort of item to sell or activity so that they can really interact with the attendees.

- Mm-hmm.

So there you go.

When you're curating vendors for the market though, do you look for a ratio or a balance between the artist versus food versus a drink vendor?

- It's not necessarily something we've had to consider so far.

We accept almost all of our applicants.

We do try to, if we see that we might need more food vendors to try to keep up with the long lines that form, we'll try to reach out to some food like restaurants or food trucks in the area to try to keep up with those high attendee numbers.

- Mm-hmm.

So how did, over the last four or five years, how were, how did you manage to really grow the event to the size it is now and maybe how much bigger do you think it can grow?

- Yeah, I think a lot of it is just word of mouth.

And as we've gotten more sponsorships and such, we can like use online advertising, stuff like that.

We ask our vendors, our performers to share our event.

And yeah, it's just grown and we have people who have attended every year.

I think it can continue to grow.

We have vendors that have been coming in from outside of the Fargo-Moorhead area.

We have some vendors from like the Twin Cities, Fergus Falls, Grand Forks that travel in.

So we've started to really widen our reach, which I think is the next way for us to grow our event and gain even more vendors and performers.

- Well, with that said, it's interesting.

I guess I would've asked you that in a minute here, but yeah, so you're reaching outside.

It's not just local.

So when you scout for vendors or performers, does the night market, do you look at trends in the community or trends in the things going around for asking new and returning attendees?

- I suppose we don't really take trends into account, but we do accept vendors and performers that we think people will really love.

I guess I didn't get to touch on performances much, but we try to have a wide variety of types of performances.

We've had like dances, singers, instrumentalists, and some more traditional performances.

Last year we had a lion dance, which people really loved.

So just taking into account, like, variety I would say is our most important focus.

- Yeah, and with your job, I mean, you know, what kind of strategies do you use to market the event, you know, to an area like Fargo-Moorhead?

- Yeah, one of the things I do with our social media, especially leading up to the event, is do vendor and performer spotlights.

I'll get images and a little introduction from our vendors and performers, and I'll post those to sort of introduce them and build up hype for the event.

- Mm-hmm.

Why do you think it's important to have an event like the Asian Night Market in states like North Dakota?

- Yeah, like I mentioned, I actually grew up in California, which is a little bit more of a melting pot of cultures when you compare it to North Dakota.

So when I moved here, it was much harder to find people who looked like me, who shared the same culture.

So I think it's very important to have an event like this for all of the AAPI people to gather, to meet people like themselves.

We've had people and vendors give us responses where they grew up in areas not ever meeting anyone that looked like them.

I think for those who aren't in the AAPI community, it's also important for them to learn about these different cultures.

When people think of AAPI, they maybe just think of a few cultures, but it is really, really vast and there's so, so many foods, so many, like, traditions to learn about.

It's just super fun to meet everybody.

- Well with that said, so obviously then it sounds like you believe there's an educational aspect of the market for communities like Fargo and Moorhead.

And can you talk a little bit more about what kinds of things, you know, you talked about the culture, but, and so is that what they're being educated on when they see these performers and other and even the food?

- Yeah, yeah, for sure.

I think through the food, through the performances, we even have some vendors that are specifically focused on like teaching about their culture.

One of which, for example, is the Japan Outreach Initiative.

Their mission is to teach about Japanese culture.

So we have vendors that provide those experiences.

And just getting to meet people of other cultures, I think is one of the most important ways to learn about them.

- Well let's talk about this year's event.

Remind us the date again and maybe talk about some of the highlights attendees might see.

I mean, you've talked about it some, and maybe any special performances that you have lined up for this year.

- Yeah, so this year's on May 30th from 4:00 to 9:00 PM, that's on a Saturday, our first Saturday ever, and it's at the Fargo Air Museum.

Some of the highlights are, of course, the live performances, the wide variety of vendors.

Some of our really popular vendors are our bakers.

They tend to sell out really quick so if you want some good bread, I would show up early.

We also try to focus on the fact that we are a free-entry event and family friendly.

We provide, like, kids activities, coloring pages.

This year our theme is the story of the Asian Night Market and the cultures that bring us together.

So we also have like the library bringing a book cart.

We have a live reading of a book.

I'm really excited for our singers this year.

We have a couple new dance groups that are performing, a Filipino dance group and a dance group performing a hula dance.

So that's really exciting.

- Well, you've got a lot going on, it sounds like.

So what's it been like to see the growth, you know, with the sponsors, with the performers, with the vendors, and you know, that it's had in the past four years 'cause you've been there since the start.

- Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's honestly really unreal.

It's crazy to think that this little passion project of ours can grow and reach so many people.

One thing we say every year is like, "What if people don't show up?"

Because (chuckles) we only know of, like, of course our families and friends are coming, but all of these strangers are coming together just to attend like our little project.

So that's just really rewarding.

- And do you get feedback from the vendors and the audiences and how do you apply that if you do?

I assume you do though.

- Yeah, we actually do have both like a vendor/performer feedback form that we send out as well as an attendee feedback form that we ask people to fill out.

Some of the feedback we receive is purely operational.

Some of the feedback we receive is very empowering, like people just taking away a lot, mentioning that they met vendors they would've not met before.

But yeah, I think most of the feedback we integrate is like the operational aspects.

- If you were talking to a group of people about this, who should attend?

I mean who?

Anybody?

Everybody.

- Yeah, anybody can attend, families, like individuals.

I think one thing that is super cool is we've had like attendees turn into volunteers.

We've had volunteers turn into team members, so anyone can attend, anyone can get involved.

- You know, do you think events such as this with the night market help Asian Americans connect deeper with their cultural heritage?

- Yes.

For me personally, it has.

I've, of course, coming from California where there's a large Filipino American community, moving to North Dakota where there wasn't as much of a community here, I've just met a lot more people in that share my culture and learned stuff about my own culture that I haven't learned about, learned about other cultures that I didn't know that much about.

There's a lot of knowledge to be learned.

- Yeah.

So what are the plans to celebrate the next five years?

I mean, now I'm asking you to use your crystal ball and think about it.

You've grown these five years in an interesting time with coming off of COVID and everything, and so what about the next five years?

What are you hoping for?

- I think we just hope to continue building that community feeling, to continue, maybe increasing our number of vendors, increasing the amount of people in our team that we get to work with, building more connections with the individuals, organizations, and businesses.

- For you personally, what's the most fun of the Asian Night Market?

- Oh, that's a tough one.

I think I do really enjoy that we have the live performances now.

I think last year that was a really big accomplishment of ours to integrate that into our program.

Another fun thing that we have is, we call it our passport.

We have an activity where attendees can get 10 stamps from 10 different vendors and then they can enter into a drawing to win a prize.

And that's just another way for them to interact with these people and businesses.

- Mm-hmm.

So if somebody is interested in finding out more about it, where can they go?

What can they do?

- Yeah, so we have our website, it's asiannightmarketfm.org.

We also have an Instagram @asian.nightmarket as well as a Facebook page, which is Asian Night Market and Media.

- Well, we wish you the best and look forward to seeing it.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you for joining us today.

Stay tuned for more.

(warm upbeat music) Butch Pavlacky first discovered his love of working with clay in high school.

And after working on the railroad for many years, he got the opportunity to return to his pottery wheel.

In his studio, Lost Highway Pottery, in Fergus, Minnesota he creates functional pieces for everyday use.

From mugs to vases, colors and patterns are repeated to make collectible sets that keep his customers coming back for more.

(gentle bright music) - It's complicated, but it's simple.

If I can do it, anybody can do it.

I first got interested in pottery in '71 or '72 at Staples High School.

It was something about the wheel, the clay gets in you.

I couldn't get enough of it once I did it.

I spent all the free time that I could and get in there and do it.

And then I went to Bemidji State to study pottery and school wasn't for me.

So I got married, had kids, worked on the railroad, and after about 25 years, I had the opportunity to start again.

(clay slaps) We started out by doing a few shows and it was well received and give me incentive to do it more and get better at it.

I don't consider myself an artist.

I'm a craftsman.

I like to make a good, sturdy pot that looks good, yet it will hold up to kitchen use for the functional stuff.

This is gonna get used as a medium mixing bowl, more than likely, unless somebody grows a flower in it or something.

But I like to put this thick rim on 'em, that way it'll take a little ding in the sink or in the kitchen, just makes 'em a little more sturdy.

I start with the clay.

The more amount of clay you use, the harder it gets.

It's about the centering and you gotta have some strength to do it.

Form it, trim it the next day, put on the handles, do whatever you have to do.

Then it goes on a drying rack.

Once it's on the drying rack, you don't have to worry about it.

You can leave it there for a year if you want to.

Usually it's two, three weeks and then it gets fired.

We're waxing the bottom with paraffin wax to repel the glaze when we dip 'em.

Otherwise, if that's glazed, it will stay attached to the shelf when it turns to glass.

(cheerful music) The art part probably comes in with a glazing.

It's basically sand mixed with water.

And when you dip a bisque-fired pot into it, the water sucks into the pot and it leaves like a coating of sand on the outside.

And when you fire it to 2,230 degrees, it turns to glass, so it's waterproof and usable.

The clay I use will only take up to a certain temperature and starts doing weird stuff.

It'll bloat or pinhole.

There's all kinds of little problems that come out when you push your stuff higher than it's supposed to be.

And the glazes are made to fit the clays that you're using.

There's a shrinkage on the clay and the glaze has to shrink with it.

So if you push it too hard, the glaze will come off the pot and it'll end up on the shelf and you got a mess.

I kind of know when I unload the kiln, "Oh, I need a bunch of bowls in this color, I need mugs in that color."

That kind of determines what color I'm gonna do on a piece.

Vases, a little bit different.

I play with vases more.

That's my favorite thing to make.

You can do more experimentation and stuff with that.

When I make a coffee mug, I know what I want it to look like when it gets done.

With a vase, the kiln can maybe do something special for me.

I really love pulling the clay after centering and opening, to watch the pot grow.

I just get a kick out of it every time.

You concentrate on the piece and everything else goes away.

(bright music) You sell a lot more of the smaller stuff than you do the bigger stuff because of the price.

I put a price on a pot that I would pay myself.

I get told that I'm too reasonable, I'm too reasonable, but, and other potters have told me that, "That's way too much of a pot for that price."

Somebody will buy one of my coffee mugs where they won't spend a bunch of money on a coffee mug, and once they get started collecting pottery, then that's a good thing for me.

With repeating the colors and making all different mugs, soup mugs, sets of bowls, utensil holders, it seems like people start collecting, they come back year after year and buy some more pieces.

Same color pattern.

You have really good customers then I don't know how long they'll come, 10, 15 years, but eventually they fill up everything with as many pots as they wanna buy from you, right?

They'll start collecting another color and do it all again.

You get somebody in here excited.

You didn't just gain a customer, you gained a bunch of customers.

They tell their parents, their friends.

It makes you feel good about yourself.

When we first started doing shows and people would ooh and aah you know, you'd hear that, and I think I told my wife that, you know, "This is first time in like I don't know how long that I feel good about myself."

I've come a long ways from where I started.

I still got a long ways to go.

But I've done it my way and I'll keep doing it my way.

- Well, that's all we have on "Prairie Pulse" this week.

And as always, thanks for watching.

(warm upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funded by: the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008.

And by the members of Prairie Public.