Yearly Archives: 2020

Alternate Reality, or, A Narrow Opening ~ a poem by Bao Phi

Instead of a grandmother kicked in her face:a thousand orchids blooming from each swinging foot,the stems and petals forming a fragrant facemask wrapped around every face -hers, and yours.

THIS IS FOR MẸ: Hope & Humour with Malaka Gharib

I like making really tiny zines and the challenge of trying to express big ideas like love, loss and heartbreak with very few words, images and pages. It feels like I am writing a haiku or a poem, or trying to work through a puzzle.

Giving Voice to the Dream of Nation Building in Vietnam: “The Republic of Vietnam, 1955 – 1975”

For us, more than anything, "The Republic of Vietnam" is a primer and a demand for a more comprehensive, Vietnamese-written works of history.

In the Diaspora: August 2020

Socio-cultural, literary, and political news and events relating to the Vietnamese diaspora and to Việt Nam.

New Wave: A Conversation with Filmmaker Elizabeth Ai On Her Documentary

Wherever new wave was playing was a safe space. They knew they could congregate with other young Vietnamese, and momentarily escape pressures from home, their past trauma, and just be whatever version of themselves they wanted to be.

Textures of April 30th: Poems by Katherina Nguyen

I wish I knew Miss Saigon, / knew her through my parents’ eyes, / before the worry lines crowded their vision, / before her name became another word for loss.

To Find a Tribe: What the Census Meant to My Father & Means to Me

Engaging his people in the Census was a natural extension of my dad’s advocacy – to ensure Vietnamese representation in America’s self-portrait. He went all-in, knocking door to door, making speeches, strewing Census infomaterials over various neighborhoods from boxes of the stuff in his bedroom and basement.

Behind the Scenes: A Conversation with Filmmaker Bao Nguyen About His Documentary “Be Water”

I had the fortune of interviewing filmmaker and storyteller Bao Nguyen during his press run for his newest film "Be Water," the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary chronicling the personal life and philosophies of legendary martial artist Bruce Lee. 

REFUGENE & Storytelling ~ Call for Submissions

A lot of their words stuck with me, but this thought in particular stayed in my mind: They said they’d always wanted to have this conversation, they just didn’t know how or when to start it. 

A Conversation Among One: Reading Nhã Thuyên’s un martyred

Book, you call yourself a conversation but you know you are a monologue. You are one reader talking to mostly silenced poetry, waiting for another reader, for a me, an us, a them to come and breathe back into the space to make and keep the conversation alive, and perhaps to keep a poetry alive.