February 23, 2025 - Pawtucket Mayor / Slave Autobiography Discovery / Growing up Hmong

Rhode Island PBS Weekly

On this episode, Michelle San Miguel interviews Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien about his city’s future as many of its schools are failing, an iconic business is considering leaving and people are worried about how President Trump’s new policies will affect them. Then, Pamela Watts interviews a local professor who discovered a long-lost fugitive slave’s article, which had been written years before the Civil War. Finally, we take another look at our story on Growing up Hmong. The Hmong people are an ethnic group that originated in China, with a diaspora reaching across the globe. Their journey to the U.S. began after one of the longest and most divisive wars in American History – the Vietnam War -- came to an end. Producer Isabella Jibilian interviewed a Hmong family here in the Ocean State about their history and journey to America. This is part of our continuing My Take series.