Over the 50 years since the first Vietnam War-era Southeast Asian refugees arrived in the U.S., there’s been hardship — but there have also been plenty of comedic moments, which is where the St. Paul-based comedy group Funny Asian Women Kollective comes in.

This weekend, the group is presenting The FAWK Hmong (+Friends) Super Show, featuring local and national Asian stand-up comedians, sketch comics and storytellers.

“It might’ve been a stereotype for people to say, 50-year anniversary, let’s reflect on war and death in this history of ours — which is completely real — but what’s really interesting is that a lot of people are focusing on the funny,” said FAWK co-founder and writer May Lee-Yang, who is directing Saturday’s show. “We don’t just want to show up on stage and talk about trauma. We want to talk about the quirky, the weird, the mundane that makes us all feel a little bit more human.”

Featured performers in the show include the trio of FAWK co-founders — Lee-Yang, Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay and Naomi Ko — and Lin Sun, billed as the first Cambodian stand-up comic to have an hourlong special on a major streaming platform; online personality Ntxawm Kam; and other local acts. Plus pretaped and live sketches, including “Love Is Blind: Hmong Edition,” written by Kazua Melissa Vang, who worked as a production assistant on the most recent Minneapolis-based season of the Netflix dating show.

The FAWK Hmong (+Friends) Super Show is at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 19, at the Ordway. Tickets range from $31 to $54 and are available online.

FAWK, which was formed in 2014 and has performed three previous Super Shows over the years in addition to other programming, aims to provide a platform for participants to create a new model of gregarious, funny Asian womanhood, and break down stereotypes of Asian women as demure and quiet and overly serious.

“When we did our first Super Show at the Ordway in 2019, one feedback we got was, ‘You guys were so funny that I forgot I was watching Asian women.’” Duangphouxay Vongsay said. “And then we’ve had to unpack that.”

When Duangphouxay Vongsay was growing up, she said, she recalled Lao community members referencing complex topics like war and trauma — but only through jokes and satirical comments, not head-on discussions.

“I heard a lot of elders making fun of hard stuff to help them talk about it,” Duangphouxay Vongsay said. “For Laotians who have survived the wars — the many wars — we use comedy as a way to cope, and even sometimes to bring up topics that are really, really hard.”

This is the idea behind FAWK, she said: By finding ways to laugh about the things that are most important in our lives, even topics that may feel taboo, audience members cannot only enjoy themselves in the moment but also then use the show as a gateway for deeper conversations in the future.

“I think many people — most people I know, anyway — are always looking for an opportunity to laugh,” Lee-Yang said. “It brings them joy, brings them catharsis and makes them feel seen.”

If you go

What: The FAWK Hmong (+Friends) Super Show

Where: The Ordway, 345 Washington St., St. Paul

For tickets: 651-224-4222 or visit ordway.org/events/fawk-hmong-friends-super-show.

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A 52-year-old Farmington man accused his wife of cheating on him and then repeatedly stabbed her at their home on Tuesday, according to attempted murder charges.

Farmington police officers were sent to the home in the 19000 block of Goldfinch Drive about 8:30 a.m. on a report of domestic assault. Dispatchers told officers a woman was screaming that she had been stabbed and couldn’t move, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday in Dakota County District Court charging Mehdi Badaoui with one count each of first- and second-degree attempted murder.

Mehdi Badaoui (Courtesy of the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office)

When officers arrived at the home, a witness and Badaoui were standing in the garage. Officers took Badaoui into custody, noting he had blood on his hand.

The witness led officers to a bedroom, where the woman was lying on her side in a pool of blood. Officers applied a tourniquet to stop one of the wounds on her arm from bleeding.

Later, hospital staff told officers she had 10 stab wounds, lost a lot of blood and needed emergency surgery. A laceration to neck/shoulder area and a wound to her armpit were considered the most serious, the complaint says.

At the home, officers recovered a bloody pocketknife on the kitchen counter.

Officers were able to speak with the woman, who said Badaoui is her husband and that he believes she is unfaithful to him. She reported he has beaten her and threatened her with a knife multiple times.

The witness, who also lives at the home, told police she woke up that morning to yelling and saw Badaoui stabbing the woman. She also saw him drag the victim through the kitchen and into a bedroom.

The witness “pleaded with (Badaoui) to stop, but he stated he was going to kill (the victim) and go to jail,” the complaint says. The witness told police Badaoui has choked the victim and threatened to kill her several times before.

In an interview at the police station, Badaoui said he suspected his wife was cheating on him. He admitted to placing a GPS tracking device under a seat in her car and that several times in recent months he had waited outside her workplace for her to come out.

On the day of the stabbing, Badaoui told police, he noticed that she was somewhere other than work. He went there and confronted her and they argued. Later, at home, they argued more. He said picked up a knife and began “hitting” her with it after she tried to scratch him in the face.

Badaoui said he thought he stabbed his wife three to four times, and admitted he was angry with her while doing so and that she was screaming for the witness during the attack, the complaint says.

Badaoui had a first court appearance on the charges Thursday, where he remained at the Dakota County jail in lieu of $1 million bail or $750,000 with conditions. The court also issued a domestic abuse no-contact order, prohibiting Badaoui from having any direct or indirect contact with the woman. His next court appearance is scheduled for May 1.

“The facts in this case are shocking and the terror the victim endured is unthinkable,” Dakota County Attorney Kathy Keena said in a statement. “I’m grateful to the Farmington Police Department and the first responders who provided life-saving aid. My thoughts continue to be with the victim as she recovers.”

Badaoui does not have a criminal record beyond three parking tickets and a speeding violation, Minnesota court records show.

Help for victims of domestic violence is available through the Day One hotline by calling 866-223-1111 or texting 612-399-9995.

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A lightning strike may have been the cause of a steeple fire at a historic church in St. Paul on Thursday, the fire department said.

The fire didn’t extend into the church in Frogtown and no injuries were reported.

The Gothic Revival church on Farrington Street at Sherburne Avenue was built in 1902 by Trinity Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church, according to the website of Historic St. Paul, a nonprofit preservation organization.

St. Paul Firefighters put out a reported lightning strike fire on the steeple of the former Trinity Norwegian Evangelical Church in at Sherburne Ave. and Farrington St. in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood on Thursday, April 17, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

It’s now dual zone occupancy and two adults were displaced from a basement living unit; the American Red Cross has been contacted to assist them, according to St. Paul Deputy Fire Chief Jamie Smith. He said the building is apparently still being used as a church. A property record lists the owner as Church Inc.

Firefighters responded to the scene just before 5:30 p.m. Thursday and could see tall flames coming from the steeple while they were on the way.

St. Paul’s Department of Safety and Inspections came to assess the steeple and, due to its unstable condition, sidewalks and the street are blocked — Sherburne Avenue between Virginia and Farrington streets, and Farrington Street between Sherburne and Charles avenues. The closures will remain in place until further assessment is completed, according to the fire department.

The fire happened as a thunderstorm was underway and, while the official cause of the fire is under investigation, preliminary investigation points to a lightning strike.

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In chess, as in life, you are bound to make some mistakes.

That was the message Ed Bourgeois, access and outreach coordinator for the Minnesota State Chess Association, had for 32 inmates at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater on Thursday morning, prior to participating in the state’s first prison chess tournament.

“It’s your first time playing on the clock, and you’re going to blunder,” said Bourgeois, referring to the digital game timers required for tournament play. “It happens to the best players in the world. Please just keep your head about you. Your opponent is probably going to blunder one too. Just don’t give up, never give up.”

The inmates who gathered in the prison’s recreation room at 8:30 a.m. got to spend the morning playing four official games of chess. The tournament, which took more than two years to plan, was open to any interested and eligible inmates.

Each player who participated got to keep a chess board and pieces provided by The Gift of Chess, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing the game of chess to incarcerated individuals. The top four finishers will get to play in a nationwide virtual chess tournament against other incarcerated players.

Warden Bill Bolin said playing chess helps people develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills — and make positive choices.

“Those skills are critical when we talk about transforming lives,” Bolin said. “Because we don’t want individuals who are continually having the same thoughts or making the same choices. We want them to look at things differently, and chess, really, if you’ve ever played chess, is a game of critical thinking and strategy and at times you’re looking two or three moves ahead.”

Warden William Bolin, standing, watches as 32 inmates play chess during a tournament at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater on Thursday. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Impulsivity doesn’t work in chess, Bolin said. “You want to slow down your thinking, especially when you’re making some critical decisions. Then you want to come up with a positive choice.”

‘Chess is like life’

Inmate Hannabal Shaddai, 52, said he learned to play chess when he was a student at Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary School in Minneapolis.

“My sixth-grade teacher taught me to play. Mr. Wendell. I’ll never forget him,” said Shaddai, who is serving a life sentence for murder. “He spent the last hour of school every day teaching students to play.”

When Shaddai started playing chess in prison, he said he remembered his teacher’s words of wisdom. “Mr. Wendell said that chess is like life,” he said. “You should know every move that you’re making. I equated that to my rehabilitation.”

The intellectual demands of the game appeal to Shaddai. “It makes you think. It makes you use your brain,” he said. “It’s a game of strategy, a game of tactics. You have to remember, ‘Why did I do that? Okay, don’t do that. Yeah, let that go. Don’t worry about that.’”

Shaddai was paired with Richard Adams for his first game. Adams drew white, which meant he got to go first. Each player got 25 minutes on their clock to play the entire game, with an increment of 5 seconds per move.

At Shaddai’s request, Dean Zagar, tournament director, went over the “touch-move rule” just minutes before they started playing.

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“Hey, y’all!” he yelled to the other inmates. “Listen up to the rules!”

Zagar, the president of Chess Castle of Minnesota, explained that if a player intentionally touches a piece on the board, they must move that piece if it has a legal move. “If you touch one of your opponent’s pieces first, you have to capture it,” he said. “If you have multiple options, you can capture it with whatever option you’d like to capture it with.”

Said Shaddai: “I’ve been telling people that for the longest time, ‘No, that’s not what touch-move rule is.’ Because people get into stuff, but they don’t get books, and they don’t get rules. They play games, but they don’t know the rules.”

Trash talk

Shaddai beat Adams, but then Lon Newman, president of the St. Croix Valley Chess Club, teamed up with Adams to play Shaddai for a second time.

“Castle early,” Newman told Adams. “There are principles in the opening. One is fight for the center. Two is develop your minor pieces – your bishops and knights. And three is protect the king. So every move in the opening should be directed at one of those three things.”

Shaddai didn’t hold back from trash-talking his opponent. “I was a step behind him because I got black, but now I’m gonna step in front of him,” he said. “He gave it back to me. He should have castled before me. Now I’ve castled. My king is safer than his. His is still in the middle of the board.”

“I just don’t believe in the whole castle thing,” Adams said.

“So in boxing, you don’t believe in putting your gloves up? You believe in putting your chin out?” he said.

“I’m too fast,” Adams countered. “You won’t hit me in a boxing match.”

“That’s what that dude from Brazil thought,” Shaddai said, referring to MMA legend Anderson Silva’s loss to YouTube star-turned-boxer Jake Paul.

“You guys are the trash-talking champions here,” Newman said.

“You know what Mike Tyson says?” Shaddai said. “Mike Tyson said, ‘Everybody has a plan until you get punched in the face.’”

Before the tournament started, Newman encouraged the men to be on their best behavior. “If we screw it up now, we won’t be doing it again,” he said.

Welcome respite

Inmates gather in the gymnasium for a chess tournament at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater on Thursday. The tournament, the first in a Minnesota prison, was hosted by the St. Croix Valley Chess club and the Minnesota State Chess Association. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

In an interview with the Pioneer Press, Newman, who lives in Stillwater, said he hopes there will be future tournaments at the prison, which is located in Bayport.

“I’m hoping we can move forward,” he said. “I would have a monthly club meeting if I could get one.”

Inmate Robert Kendell-Bey, 44, thanked the organizers and said playing in the tournament was a welcome respite from everyday prison life.

“Any time that we can come together outside the madness and traditional modes of being in here is great for me,” Kendall-Bey said. “I’m all about cooperation and community, collaboration and mutualism. We look forward to moments like this where we can engage in community that’s outside the bounds of normal prison etiquette, so this is a moment of joy. Sincerely.”

Inmate Pierre Brown, 39, said he started playing chess in a juvenile detention center when he was 11.

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“From that point on, I just always had passion for the game,” he said. “I love the game. It’s really like life. It’s like a war game, but it’s, like, you got to protect your king at all costs, so sacrifices must be made.”

Brown, who generally plays about five hours a day, said playing chess helped him grow and mature.

“It just helped me think about things,” he said. “Because I see in a game, when you make an impulsive move, then you have to suffer the consequences of that. You got to pay for it.”

Despite the amount of time he spends playing, Brown said he doesn’t dream about chess moves.

“I’m not gonna lie. I take my melatonin, and it just knocks me out,” he said.