Hmong Legacy: Stories From The Heart Spring 2023 – Letter From Your Brother

April 26th, 2023

My fifth and final performance for Hmong Legacy. I had originally wanted to go with a piece that encapsulated my time and experience in Hmong Legacy. But that was not what I learned in Hmong Legacy. In Hmong Legacy, we continue to push ourselves and confront some of our deepest fears and traumas. So, with that, I wrote a whole new piece the night before the performance.

I thought I had finished writing about the topic of family as I wrote about my mom, my stepmom, and my mot grandma. There are two topics I’ve avoided writing about for the longest time because they are the two that caused me the most damage and pain. They are my older brother and my father. So, for my last piece, I decided to write about my older brother.

Hmong Legacy has been such an amazing experience throughout my undergraduate career. It allowed me to have a space where I can go to and just be Hmong. Somewhere I didn’t feel like I was fighting to just simply exist on campus. I truly hope Hmong Legacy will continue because it does wonders for our Hmong community at Chico State. Thank you to Raquel Lee and the Cross-Cultural Leadership Center for keeping Hmong Legacy going.

7 minutes and 30 seconds

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July 10, 2023 0

Hmong Legacy: Stories From The Heart Spring 2022 – Tav Khoon Kuv Pom

April 21st, 2022

My fourth performance for Hmong Legacy’s Reading event. It had been a very long time since my last spoken word performance so I was pretty nervous about this one. The background of this piece is talking about the fragile masculinity I’ve witnessed in the Hmong community. I had the opportunity to attend APAHE earlier that year and I listened to a workshop presented by Vince Moua. They talked about the struggles of being a Hmong professional at higher education institutions and having to be one or one of the few AAPI individuals fighting for our Hmong youths.

I sent this email to Vince after the conference because of how impactful his workshop was to me. “Thank you again for such a strong and powerful workshop you presented here at APAHE. I feel so privileged and honored to have attended and gotten to meet you and hear about your story. I resonated so much with many of the things you mentioned, especially the part about going to higher education and getting that exposure and then going back home and people who you used to go to school with, your own community, outcasts you. I hear you, and I see you and the pain that comes with that experience because I have gone through that too.”

On the right side here, you’ll see a few of Vince’s slides that I was able to capture.

The other media that I incorporated into this piece was from Joyner Lucas’ song called Things I’ve Seen. It is such a powerful song and raw in how he points to the struggles that Black women face and encounter. I wanted to incorporate that and switch to something that is more geared toward Hmong women. Also, I apologize for my usage of Hmong, I got too emotional during my piece and I was not able to correctly pronounce some of the Hmong words I had written down.

We even had a reporter from our university’s independent news source in attendance to capture the thoughts and feelings of the performers. You can read it here! Am I Hmong enough? Students search for identity in diaspora. Thank you Melvin Bui for coming out and reporting on this! Also, special thanks to Selena and the Cross-Cultural Leadership Center for keeping Hmong Legacy alive!

3 minutes and 34 seconds

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July 10, 2023 0

Summer Bridge 2019: English Writing Mentor – Represent Represent

June 25th, 2019

I was pushed and coaxed into giving a spoken word performance to the students. Kim (my boss) asked me a few days before the last day we met up with the students if I wanted to give a spoken word performance on the last day. I initially said “No.” but after a few more encouragement from Kim and my coworkers, I ended up saying “Yes.” So, I gave my “Represent Represent” piece a few small revisions, and then on the last day with the students, I performed it for them. The reason why I decided to go with this piece was because I wanted the students to understand that coming to college and especially being in the EOP program, they will and are representing many things. They will represent their hometown, their ethnicity, their culture, their family, Chico State, and most importantly, they will represent EOP. So when they shine, the whole program shines. At the same time, I wanted to give them a real talk about how college is not for everyone as it will test them greatly in all capacities in life. The audio is not the best so I apologize about that.

4 minutes and 19 seconds

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July 10, 2023 0

Hmong Legacy: Stories From The Heart Fall 2018 – Represent Represent

December 4th, 2018

IMPORTANT: Skip the video to 40:19 because that is when I begin my performance. My second performance in Hmong Legacy. Compared to my first performance, I was more confident and strong with my piece and the components within my piece; the message and intent. “Represent Represent” will always have a special place in my heart as it was the piece that made me discover my love for performing spoken word. I learned so much during Fall 2018 and this piece really shows my growth not only in me but the growth that I continue to seek in the future as well.

Represent Represent was made during a time that I felt resembled where I was in my life. I incorporated media that I consumed at the time into my pieces whenever I write them. So, if something feels familiar, it probably is. I can’t fully 100% claim that this is original but it is still something I want to share because this piece was everything to me when I first made it.

You can read the actual piece here! Represent Represent

Hmong Legacy – Stories From The Heart Fall 2018 – Represent Represent

6 minutes and 48 seconds

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July 10, 2023 0

Hmong Legacy: Stories From The Heart Spring 2018 – Your Lie In June

May 3rd, 2018

My first-ever performance in Hmong Legacy. I was so nervous and I just fumbled my words throughout this performance but little did I know that Hmong Legacy was going to have such a strong and impactful influence on my life not only in finding my identity as a Hmong – American male but also as a creative writer.

You can read the actual piece here. Your Lie In June

Hmong Legacy – Stories From The Heart Spring 2018

Hello, I would appreciate it if you would give me feedback on what you enjoyed and what you didn’t. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to comment or email me too! Thank you.

July 10, 2023 0

Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in Higher Education Conference – Hip Hop Pedagogy

April 16th, 2018

This was my first ever performance in front of an audience and it was surreal and not planned. Like, at all. My workshop leaders asked for volunteers and I decided to share mine. This became the basis of my future spoken word performances. And of course, Facebook quality is just the best… not really.

Hello, I would appreciate it if you would give me feedback on what you enjoyed and what you didn’t. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to comment or email me too! Thank you.

July 10, 2023 0