Initial photography by Kyle Macdonald; photo-editing & layouts by Dao Strom
—Former country,
—Former water,
—Nước cũ,
—Sông xưa,
.
.
.
.
<cái gì người học nhớ / chúng ta học quên>
Initial photography by Kyle Macdonald; photo-editing & layouts by Dao StromInitial photography by Kyle Macdonald; photo-editing & layouts by Dao StromInitial photography by Kyle Macdonald; photo-editing & layouts by Dao StromInitial photography by Kyle Macdonald; photo-editing & layouts by Dao Strom
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On the eve of the anniversary we came down from the mountain-house. The taxi driver who took us back to the city had a tattoo on his wrist, it read: “1975.”
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Vào cái đêm kỷ niệm chúng tôi xuống từ ngôi nhà trên núi. Người lái taxi đưa chúng tôi trở về thành có một hình xăm trên cổ tay, đọc lên: “1975.”
Initial photography by Kyle Macdonald; photo-editing & layouts by Dao Strom
<đặc thù
<endemic
<to> <của> <memory><hồi ức>
<>
.
.
.<
>
<đến> <to>
H(a)unted by
Bị (s)ăn bởi
.
.
Initial photography by Kyle Macdonald; photo-editing & layouts by Dao Strom
Dịch tràn mùa di
.
.
.
.
Pandemic of flight
.
.
.
.
.
.
<April 31st>
made this possible.
.
.
<Tháng Tư ngày 31>
làm nên chuyện.
Initial photography by Kyle Macdonald; photo-editing & layouts by Dao StromInitial photography by Kyle Macdonald; photo-editing & layouts by Dao Strom
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It was on an April 31st :
a hole opened in the sky
and the sea rose
to meet it.
+ –
Vào một tháng Tư ngày 31:
một hố đen mở toạc bầu trời
và mặt biển dâng
lên chạm lấy.
◆
This image-text sequence is from a visual/poetry book to be published by Ajar Press in 2018. “You will always be someone from somewhere else” is a bilingual English-Vietnamese hybrid work of poetry interwoven with image fragments.
It explores the ethos of displacement through the lens of being of the Vietnamese diaspora. These images were gathered on a return trip to Vietnam, the place of my birth. April 30 1975, a historic date, marked both cataclysm – in the form of mass exodus – and “reunification” for Vietnamese people, depending on how you choose to remember the event.
—Dao Strom
Dao Strom's work explores hybridity through melding disparate “voices”—written, sung, visual—to contemplate the intersection of personal and collective histories. She is the author of two fiction books, Grass Roof, Tin Roof and The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys, and an experimental memoir/hybrid project, We Were Meant To Be A Gentle People, accompanied by a music album, East/West. Strom has received support from the Regional Arts Culture & Council, Oregon Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, James Michener Fellowship, and the Nelson Algren Award. She is a 2016 Creative Capital Award artist. Her bilingual poetry book, You will always be someone from somewhere else, is forthcoming from AJAR Press in 2018.
Ly Thuy Nguyen is that hybrid Viet youngster with different realities in different cities. On a good day, she is finishing her PhD in San Diego, California. Her research is on the personal and the political of human geographic stories, interAsian connections and global queer futurity. On a better day, she is translating some interesting and important works - there are more to come. On any given day, she is figuring out her complicated relationship to poetry and life.
