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Illustrations and graphics by @ailienlovele | Video Animation by @noah_trvn

 
(Lo)Về Quê(er): QTVIÊT Artist and Healers Spring 2021 Showcase Program

We’re excited to share our hearts with you this Friday May 14th for (Lo)Về Quê(er), the culminating live showcase and community offering, curated and produced by the first QTViệt Artists & Healers Circle (2020-21). Please see our beautiful cohort of artists and their biographies below.

To view the showcase* at 7PM PT, join our Twitch stream linked here.
To join the afterparty featuring Eli 朱 Chico Chi at 9:30PM PT, use this Zoom link.
*Bilingual captioning and Vietnamese interpretation will be made available.
*A Twitch account will not be necessary to view the showcase, but will be to join the live chat room

Performers in order of appearance:

  • An Bùi | “Sông Tính: But What Does the River Think?”  
  • Tracy Nguyễn | “Waiting for Dad”
  • Jean Phạm | “Every Day”
  • Ái Liên Lê | "where I miss you most"
  • Irene Phương B Văn | “A Box of a Home & To the Cisfolks I Ever Loved”
  • Jessie Nguyễn | "Áo Dài for the Modern Prince"
  • Trang Trần | “Luving Myself Back Home”
  • Phibi Trần | “Coming Home, Love Got Purpose”
  • Hải Võ | “Chà Bông Mẹ: Một bức thư tình thương cho mẹ / A love letter to my mom”

Suggested donation $0-$25. We accept Venmo (@qtvietcafe) or you can donate online.

Community Guidelines
  • Share your love with us by engaging in the chat room on Twitch!
  • Help support our work by following us and our artists
  • Do your part to contribute to a loving and welcoming space for all
This event was made possible with support from Asian Refugees United (ARU), Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants (CERI), and Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality (AACRE). For any questions or concerns, please contact us at qtvietcafe@gmail.com.

With love
The QTViệt Cafe Collective


Circle Purpose


The Circle’s purpose is to gather interested and committed QTViệt artists and healers to make space to deeply nurture and support our individual and each other’s art forms and practice and share our creative expressions with the greater community.  We welcome and encourage Circle members to consider their art form(s) as it relates to being Queer/Trans and Vietnamese in the dispora and/or homeland.  We hope to emulate the beauty of circles - we find them in shapes like the sun, the moon, planets in the cosmos, tree trunks, cell structures, nhãn (longan and many other fruits), and in cycles like the lunar calendar and the concept of plants sprouting, repopulating, and composting

This opportunity is intended for QTViệt-identified artists and healers who want to be in deep community with other QTViệt-identified artists and healers to grow, support, and nurture our creative expressions.  We welcome QTViệts who are already engaged in an art form(s) and want a community to network with/offer feedback or for QTViệts who are emerging as artists/healers and have an idea and want a network and some semi-structure to manifest creative dreams. We want the concepts of art & healing to be as fluid & wide a spectrum as gender & sexual expression & identities.

Circle Agreements


  • Compassion of self and others 
  • Honesty and courage to show vulnerability 
  • Open mindedness and presence in what others share
  • Healing is in our timeline
  • Name needs (access needs, bio needs, etc) and take care of needs
  • Breathe

Circle Artists and Healers Bios


An
An Bùi

An Bùi is a poet, youth worker, and water rooster who was born in Việt Nam and raised in San José. Through her writing, she navigates family dynamics, queer Catholic Vietnamese identity, and grief. Her work has been featured in Autostraddle, Kearny Street Workshop, San José Museum of Art, and Chopsticks Alley. When she’s not writing, she’s leading programs to support youth development, dreaming of family intergenerational healing, and catching as many sunsets as possible.

@anonymousbui



ai
Ái Liên Lê

Ai is a queer, non-binary artist and creative from San Jose. They hope to gain strength through knowledge, acceptance, and community. Their artistic and healing processes are deeply nurtured through flexible creativity and gardening. In times of uncertainty and overwhelm, Ai centers themselves firmly in the things they know to be true: that how we connect and commit to taking care of our community is essential in our fight against all forms of oppression.

@ailienlovele


hai
hải võ - nước mắm chấm

a descendant of transoceanic fairies, nước mắm chấm stewards seeds and stories of our ancestors and elders as an everyday ritual to nourish the next generations. “chà bông mẹ” (my mom’s chà bông) is a narrative prose about the last dish their mom cooked before leaving viêt nam and their journey home towards acceptance and love with their mom. content warning: cancer, grief, and death.

nước mắm chấm là một con của những nàng tiên xuyên đại dương. nước mắm chấm sóc hạt và học hỏi về câu chuyện của tổ tiên và các bác trong cộng đồng hằng ngày cho được nuôi dưỡng thế hệ mới tương lai. “chà bông mẹ” là câu chuyện về món ăn cuối cùng mà mẹ của nước mắm chấm nấu trước khi rời Việt Nam và hành trình trở về quê hướng tới sự chấp nhận và yêu thương cho mẹ. câu chuyện này sẽ có các khái niệm về ung thư, đau buồn và chuyễn đời.

@nuocmamcham


irene
Irene Phương B Văn

Irene Van is a queer, non-binary performing artist, facilitator, and drama therapist living in their hometown of San Jose. They have previously performed with 06 Ensemble and Bad Repertory Theatre. They co-founded the Viet Healing Network to bring together healing and social justice for the Vietnamese community. Currently, they are a bilingual Vietnamese therapist serving youth and families in the Bay Area and a workshop facilitator for various community organizations and college campuses. Through the performing arts, therapy, and social justice, Irene is passionate about creating spaces for BIPOC to heal from systems of oppression and intergenerational traumas.

@irenebvan


jean
Jean Phạm

Jean (they/them) is a non-binary artist, raised in Little Saigon in Westminster Nam Cali and now living in sunny San Leandro. As a self-taught painter, they are interested in portraiture, working in both digital and oils, as a way to share stories and lives of people of color.

@fiercerobots


An
Jessie Nguyễn

Jessie is a queer Vietnamese creative currently based in Oakland, unceded Lisjan (Ohlone) Territory. They are one-half of Little Window, an evolving food project they run with their Mother, Hoang ~ together, sharing diasporic Vietnamese cooking that conjures personal memories of home and comfort. Jessie is passionate about the heart-centered experiences of food as ongoing opportunities for awareness, connection, and care.

@eatbanhmi


phibi
Phibi Trần

phibi tran (they/them) is a bisexual, non-binary diasporic Vietnamese person in America. They will be graduating this May 2021 from UC Berkeley with a degree in Cognitive Science & Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies. They have been involved with queer and transgender Asian Pacific Islander organizing locally in the Bay Area for the past few years. In their free time, they enjoy making memes, experimenting with cooking, and ribbon dancing. Their future career goal is to become a licensed professional clinical counselor and do work with LGBTQ+ and API communities within their local community of San Diego.

@p_h_i_b_i


sal
Sal Trần

Sal Tran is a queer Vietnamese photographer, filmmaker, and touring speaker based in the San Francisco Bay Area. They are one of the co-founders of SunKissed Productions - an independent queer Asian film collective. Sal’s work is rooted within the power of storytelling in film, visual and performative art. They focus on mental health advocacy work within queer trans Asian Pacific Islander (QTAPI) communities. Their work has been featured in UC Berkeley's Queer & Asian Conference, National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), Seattle Transgender Film Festival, National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) Conference, NYC Queer Asian Short Films, As[I]Am Magazine, UC Santa Barbara - Queer Trans People of Color Conference and many more.

@sal.tran


tracy
Tracy Nguyễn

Tracy Nguyen was born and raised in San Jose, California. Growing up with refugee parents from Vietnam largely defines who she is: a driven community organizer with a creative, entrepreneurial spirit. For over a decade, Tracy has worked within the nonprofit sector to uplift the voices and power of refugees, immigrants, workers, women, youth, LGBTQ community, and incarcerated individuals. Tracy just joined the APIQWTC scholarship committee this past year. She loves to tell stories with film and graphic facilitation.

@hellafly and @sunkissedpr


trang
Trang Sáng Tạo

Trang Sáng Tạo, is a child of the moon/ descendant of dragon and fairy/ grandchild of legendary turtle, sharing their creative journey towards self and collective liberation. They co-founded qtviet cafe collective in 2016 with the same intention as today's showcase- a platform for them to share their truth in community.

Trang Sáng Tạo, là con của mặt trăng/ nối dõi tông đường của rồng và tiên/ cháu của cụ rùa huyền thoại, chia sẻ hành trình hướng tới tự do cá nhân và tập thể. Cậu ta đồng sáng lập QTViet Cafe Collective năm 2016 với mục đích tương tự như hôm nay một nơi chia sẻ sự thật của mình trong cộng đồng

@trang.sang.tao


ngoc
Ngọc Anh Hà

Hi everyone, my name is Ngọc Anh last name Hà (chanh/chị/they/she). I’m very happy to be a part of this qtviet showcase! i grew up on ohlone land going back and forth from cupertino to west to east san jose.~ i’m turning 30 this year and am looking for tips on how to turn 30. I’ve also been pursuing filmmaking, and more recently acting, in los angeles for the last four years and recently (finally) spoke a line in hbo’s show genera+ion. currently i’m trying to figure out how to heal myself as well as wut the next steps in life r. I’m proud to have worked on meaningful projects such as sensitive, xanh, hoài (ongoing/memory), clamdog, + all about the ex. I’m always down to talk about qtbipoc + api + mental health issues. ~ thank u to all the beautiful spirits that have uplifted me in life

+++ to the rest: reach out to meeeee ~~~~

youtube: @angocanhha \ ig: @angocanhha / email: angocanhha@gmail.com

@angocanhha
@angocanhha
angocanhha@gmail.com


total
Total (Tố Tồ) Nguyễn

Nguyễn (Tố Tồ) Total (chanh/em/they/them) is a second generation việt kiều, nonbinary, jade of all trades; they are an engineer, SJSU graduate student, social justice organizer, resource hub, lead singer of INNOVIỆT (ig: @innovietmusic), a trained latin dancer. Chanh was born in the Dakota Territories (Minnesota) and now resides in Ohlone Territory (San José). Chanh is the founder of the Gender Bender Dance Lesson, (twitter: @thegbdl) a gender-inclusive social dance project inspired by Golden Music and Boléro which many Vietnamese Boat People listened to and danced to while remembering their homeland. Total was a former SJSU DanceSport Gold/Open Level Latin Dance competitor and has been inspiring others to learn social dancing in a safe LGBTQ+ environment. Total was one of the co-founders of Queer & Asian SJSU, has been involved with API Equality Northern California since 2014, and a part of Bữa Ăn Tiếng Việt (fb: BATV) a Vietnamese language practice potluck group.

@azncalibutt90210