Immigration, Identity and the Arts

Music and conversation with Thi Bui, Bao Phi, Gao Hong and Kevin Phoojywg Xiong
at Springboard for the Arts, 262 University Ave West, Saint Paul, MN 55103, 6:30 p.m.

This event is free and open in the pursuit of solidarity!

You are invited to join American Composers Forum (ACF) and East Side Freedom Library (ESFL) on Thursday, June 1 at 6:30 pm CT for the culminating event of our “Immigration, Identity, and the Arts” series. Taking place at the Community Hall in the newly-renovated Springboard for the Arts complex in Saint Paul, the event is part of the NEA Big Read series focused on Thi Bui’s graphic memoir The Best We Could Do about her family’s journey as Vietnamese refugees later settling in the US.

Bui is also the illustrator of A Different Pond, a children’s book written by Bao Phi about growing up in Minnesota as a Vietnamese American refugee family. Bao Phi and Thi Bui will be our featured guests for this event (Bui participating virtually). They will be joined by Gao Hong — Chinese pipa player, composer, and ACF board member — and Kevin Phoojywg Xiong — Hmong composer and 2021 recipient of ACF’s Minnesota Music Creator Awards — who will share their own musical responses.

Both The Best We Could Do and A Different Pond will be available onsite. Please send advance requests to Xavier Muzik and [email protected].

Please join us for this unique opportunity to engage in stories of immigration through music and conversation with your own Minnesota community.

Register here.

Photo by Andria Lo

Thi Bui is a Vietnamese American cartoonist and author of the critically acclaimed illustrated memoir, The Best We Could Do. Her work seeks to make sense of the stories that history leaves behind.

Thi’s debut graphic memoir, The Best We Could Do, is the story of her family in the years before, during, and after the Vietnam War. It was selected for an American Book Award, a Common Book for UCLA and other colleges and universities, a National Book Critics Circle finalist, and was an Eisner Award finalist. Her memoir was included in Bill Gates’ Top 5 Boks of 2017, and was called, “A book to break your heart and heal it,” by Pulitzer Prize-winner Viet Thanh Nguyen.

A veteran illustrator, Thi’s short comics can be found online at The Nib, PEN America, and BOOM California. She is a contributor to Refugees Anthology, published by Abrams Press, and illustrated A Different Pond, a 2018 Caldecott Honor Book, with writer Bao Phi. With her son, Hien, she co-illustrated the children’s book, Chicken of the Sea written by Viet Thanh Nguyen and his son, Ellison.

Thi is currently researching and drawing a work of graphic nonfiction about immigrant detention and deportation, to be published by One World, Random House.

Photo by Anna Min

Bao Phi is a two-time Minnesota Grand Slam champion and a National Poetry Slam finalist. His poetry is included in The Best American Poetry 2006 anthology and published widely elsewhere, including in two collections from Coffee House Press and in Poetry magazine, Asian American Literary Review, and The Spoken Word Revolution. His fiction and essays have appeared in Octavia’s Brood: Stories from Social Justice Movements, and A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota. Bao is also known for his children’s books. His A Different Pond received six starred reviews and multiple awards, including the Caldecott Honor, an Ezra Jack Keats Honor, the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association award for best picture book, the Minnesota Book Award for picture books, and other recognitions. His latest children’s book is You Are Life.

World-renown Chinese Pipa artist/composer/educator/improviser Gao Hong has performed worldwide in solo concerts, with symphony orchestras, and with musicians from other cultures and musical genres. She graduated from Beijing’s Central Conservatory. Her awards include fellowships from the Bush and McKnight Foundations, a Sorel Medallion in Recording, a Sally Award, 7 gold medals from the Global Music Awards, grants from Mid Atlantic Arts and MSAB, and numerous commissions from orchestras (including the Minnesota Orchestra), chamber groups, dance troupes, etc. Gao wrote the first pipa method book in English that was published by Hal Leonard. To honor her 50-year celebration concert at the Ordway, Mayor Melvin Carter proclaimed April 3, 2022 to be Gao Hong Day in St. Paul. Gao teaches at Carleton College, is a voting member for the Recording Academy (Grammys) and Governor for their Chicago Chapter, and a board member for the American Composers Forum.

Meet Kevin Phoojywg Xiong, a Hmong-American artist, content creator, and sound engineer based in St. Paul. He has a passion for music and has been writing songs and making music since 2013. Kevin also enjoys helping other artists with their music, teaching Hmong, Math, and Phonics at Prairie Seeds Academy, and creating videos for HAIB. As a mentor at Augsburg University and Patrick Henry High School, Kevin shares his knowledge and experience to help students create original Hmong youth-based music. With his dedication to music and education, Kevin is making a positive impact in his community and inspiring others to pursue their passions.

For more information about this series, click here.

American Composers Forum believes that music is a medium that can help us connect as humans, tell stories, and share experiences. East Side Freedom Library has long hosted study groups, partnerships, and community events that lift up the stories of its neighborhood in the name of justice. Together, we will host several cultural events and conversations examining the theme of “Immigration, Identity, and the Arts,” to amplify the voices, stories, and music of immigrant artists and community members wrestling with this theme. Included in our events will be discussion of, and inspiration from, Thi Bui’s graphic memoir, The Best We Could Do. Supported by the NEA’s Big Read project, this book aligns greatly with our theme, and resonates with so many members of our community. We are planning parallel in-person and virtual options to accommodate health and accessibility considerations. All events are free and open to the public.

NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.