Monthly Archives: November, 2020
Book Review: Paper Bells
Phan Nhiên Hạo reminds us that one does not have to write in English in order to be an American poet, nor does one have to publish in Vietnam in order to be a Vietnamese poet.
THIS IS FOR MẸ: Thanksgiving for Living Grace
Lynn Nguyen Boland shares a poetic homily to her mother, meditating on memories of mothering and the complexities of belonging, heritage, language and home.
Film Review: Monsoon by Hong Khaou
Hong Khaou’s new film Monsoon is a poetic, and at times, frustrating ballad that tells the story of a life in-between, coloured by multiple homes, identities and stories left untold.
Even in Times of Global Panic I am a Narcissist ~ a poem by Steven Duong
as my fever rides on
to a brighter & snowier peak
the tyrant of my heart texts me a HuffPo
article about the novel coronavirus
to a brighter & snowier peak
the tyrant of my heart texts me a HuffPo
article about the novel coronavirus
In the Diaspora: November 2020
Socio-cultural, literary, and political news and events relating to the Vietnamese diaspora and to Việt Nam.
Always Waiting
With ears comfortable to the sounds of the hums of quê hương, or quê nhà, my parents listened to an evoked past that reverberated well into the present. Yet these very sounds, as beautiful and tragically poignant as they are, sometimes suffocated me at night in our familiar home.
Earning the Vietnamese Public’s Trust: A Response to Covid-19
"This process of conversationally positing and collectively falsifying speculative interpretations of official matters based on private information networks is so ubiquitous in Vietnamese society, I’m not even sure it registers as part of the pandemic response. But it surely was."
ÁCCENTED | Southeast Asian Theatre Arts and Performance
This installation of ÁCCENTED will be hosted by Pulitzer-prize winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen, and will feature actor Marc dela Cruz, playwright Qui Nguyen, journalist/editor/critic Diep Tran, and playwright/producer/performer Susan Lieu.
A Deep Gulf: Q&A with Filmmaker Tim Tsai on His Documentary, “Seadrift”
A tragedy is at the the center of Tim Tsai's documentary about a small coastal Texan town. It's a tragedy of a life lost, a divided community, and of how some Vietnamese refugees were never able to make a home in Seadrift, Texas.
Now That You Are a Woman ~ a memoir excerpt by Kim Lefèvre
In her autobiography "White Métisse," Kim Lefèvre writes of her childhood and adolescence as the child of an unknown French father and a Vietnamese mother in Indochina and later Viet Nam. Being a métisse child during the turbulent period of rising nationalism, resistance to colonial power and war in Indochina, she becomes the unknowing lightning rod for the enmity directed at the French and those who collaborated with them.