Bao Phi on his watching his award winning children's book come to the stage in Hopkins

CATHY WURZER: Now, you know that every family has traditions, right? One Minneapolis family's tradition included a minnow bucket, a fishing pole, a pond, and a father and son. Bao Phi turned his memory of early morning fishing trips to the local pond into his 2017 picture book called A Different Pond-- a story that has now been adapted for theater and is currently playing at Stages Theater in Hopkins. Bao Phi is on the line. Welcome to the program, Bao.

BAO PHI: Thank you so much for having me.

CATHY WURZER: It's great to have you here. Say, I don't know the story behind the story. What inspired you to write In A Different Pond?

BAO PHI: That's a great question. So the short answer is, I had a kid. The longer version of it is I've been a spoken word poet for a very long time, since South High School speech team in the early-'90s-- fast forward to having a kid and wanting our kid to be exposed to the stories of many different families and people, right?

So certainly, Black, Native American, Latinx, queer families, single parent families, families where people have disabilities, working class families-- all of that, right-- you want your child to know that the world is a big place full of a lot of different people. And in so doing, there wasn't a whole lot of books about working class Southeast Asian refugees-- in particular, working class Vietnamese refugees like my parents-- my parents' generation.

And I was seeing a disconnect not just in the books, but also in the curriculum of the schools as my child got older. And the Minnesota children's book community has been so supportive. They were like, you should write a children's book. You should write a children's book.

And I thought that was a great idea, but I didn't know what to write about. And after thinking about it--

CATHY WURZER: Always write what you know.

BAO PHI: Yeah. Right. Right. Right. I decided on this story about fishing with my dad for food, not for fun. And the short version of the story is that that turned into a different pond.

CATHY WURZER: Because you went to Minneapolis South, I'm wondering where the fishing pond was with your dad.

BAO PHI: That's a really great question. Know so some of the places I remember, like the first fish I ever caught, was off the dock at Nokomis, right? But a lot of the places that my dad would take me that a different pond is based on were places where I'm not even sure they had names.

It was when I was very young, we would pull up by the side of a highway or into a little leafy area and we'd walk out to this dark place of this river. And sometimes there would be other people there, sometimes not. And so I'm not even sure those places really had names other than maybe nicknames that locals had for them, if that makes sense.

CATHY WURZER: Yes. Of course, it does make sense to me. And as you say, this was not for fun, it was for food.

BAO PHI: Yes. Yes, it was. I was born in Saigon shortly before the forced exodus that landed me and my family in Minnesota, the Phillips neighborhood. We were a big poor working class refugee family. My parents, tribute to them and their hard work, they did whatever they could to help us survive.

CATHY WURZER: I love the fact that A Different Pond became a Caldecott Medal Honor book in 2018. That is an amazing honor, obviously. I'm wondering, then, how does an award like that change the playing field for an author like you?

BAO PHI: It just opens up so many doors, right? Because I think anything that helps get these stories and these books into the hands of children who need them, or want them, or could learn something from them-- I've been an author and a writer for a very long time. And I know how rare that is to receive that type of help and that type of recognition to get your work out there.

And so I think that people pay attention. And that's really all you can really ask for if that makes sense.

CATHY WURZER: It does. What's it like seeing your book adapted for the stage?

BAO PHI: It's wonderful. I think Jessica Lou Pelletier did a wonderful job really kind of giving different characters a little bit more heft and drawing out elements of the story. And I'll say that I had the privilege of doing a talk back to the audience with Jessica. And there were some Vietnamese families in the audience. And what I loved hearing from them is saying, a lot of the Vietnamese families who went said, there are all these little details in the play which other people might not recognize.

But when Vietnamese people see it, they're like, oh my gosh, that reminds me of my life and my childhood. And I think that that's just point to what a terrific job Jessica did, as well as Stages Theater, Theater Mu, and the entire cast of set design-- they just did a really wonderful job adapting the play.

CATHY WURZER: Have members of your family had the opportunity to see the play?

BAO PHI: Yes and no. My parents are quite old, even for a short one-hour play. I am trying to get them to go see it, but I don't know if I can make it happen. I think I have to kind of let my ego aside and really put what's best for my family in front.

I think the best thing that I can do is that, really, this wouldn't be possible without them. And my job is to make sure that they know that.

CATHY WURZER: All writers have something that they're always working on. So what are you working on right now?

BAO PHI: Well, thank you for asking. My fourth children's book just came out. It's called You Are Life. It's also published by Capstone, which is a wonderful Minnesota company that published all four of my children's books to date. And it's a book that I wrote having so many emotions during the pandemic, in particular but not limited to all the anti-Asian violence, which had an exponential resurgence during that time.

And as a human being, as a parent, as an Asian-American parent, the fear, the anger, the resentment, the sorrow, the depression, the rage-- I just needed to do something with all of those feelings, right? And so I came up with a children's book.

It's very different for me in terms of my children's books. It's actually a poem instead of a story. And it's illustrated by Hannah Lee. And I think she did a wonderful job with the illustrations. And I'm just grateful that I can put something positive in the world at a time when things are just so difficult.

CATHY WURZER: Well, we are grateful, Bao, to you for your talent and what you're putting out in the world. Thank you so much for the opportunity to talk with you.

BAO PHI: Well, thank you for your time. I really appreciate this.

CATHY WURZER: Bao Phi has been with us. Bao is a fantastic author, as I mentioned. His book called A Different Pond has been adapted for theater, currently playing at Stages Theater in Hopkins.