Women of the Sea

Virtual Lunchtime Poetry Reading & Discussion with Southeast Asian women poets: Hedy Tripp, Catzie Vilayphonh, Denise Hanh Huynh and moderated by Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay

Hedy Tripp is a poet, writer and artist and has lived in St. Cloud, MN for more than thirty years. Originally from Singapore she identifies as an Asian American and ethnically Eurasian and uses she/her/hers pronouns. She is an elder leader and a retired lecturer in Asian American Studies at St. Cloud State University (SCSU) and continues her work as co-facilitator of the Anti-Racism workshops hosted by SCSU. She is a wife, mother and grandmother to a fiercely social justice activist Black and multicultural family.
Her poem “My Breast” is one of the 17 selected stories for #MinneAsianStories 2020 “Power of Me” published by the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL) MN. Her many awards include the 2017 AARP’s “50 Over 50” award as an artist contributing to Minnesota’s thriving culture, a 2010 Fellow of the James P. Shannon Leadership Institute, St. Paul, Minnesota; the 2007 Asian-Pacific Leadership Award, Governors’ State Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans; the 2005 Virginia McKnight Binger Award in Human Service and the 1997 City of St. Cloud Mayor’s High-Five Award for Cultural Diversity.

Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay (Mooks) is a Lao writer. CNN’s “United Shades of America” host W. Kamau Bell called her work “revolutionary.” She’s a 2019 recipient of a Sally Award for Initiative from the Ordway Center for Performing Arts which “recognizes bold new steps and strategic leadership undertaken by an individual…in creating projects or artistic programs never before seen in Minnesota that will have a significant impact on strengthening Minnesota’s artistic/cultural community.” She’s the author of the children’s book WHEN EVERYTHING WAS EVERYTHING and is best known for her award-winning play KUNG FU ZOMBIES VS CANNIBALS. Her plays have been presented by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (NY), Theater Mu (MN), Lower Depth Theater (LA), Asian Improv Arts (IL), and elsewhere. Other awards include grants/fellowships from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Bush Foundation, Andy Warhol Foundation, MAP Fund, Playwrights’ Center, Forecast Public Art, MRAC, MSAB, and others. Saymoukda is currently an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence at Theater Mu, a McKnight Foundation Fellow in Community-Engaged Practice Art, and a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow in playwriting.
Her latest awards are:
2020-2023 Andrew W. Mellon Playwright in Residence
2021-2022 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow in Theater
2021 McKnight Foundation Fellow in Community-Engaged Practice Art
Find her at https://www.refugenius.net/

Denise Hanh Huynh is a poet, educator, and researcher. Her poetry has appeared with publications such as diaCRITICS, Coffee House Press, and Public Art Saint Paul. She is a Voices of Our Nation Arts (VONA) Foundation alum, American Educational Research Association (AERA) Embodying Radical Love in/Outside the Academy scholar, and 2017-2021 Monkeybear’s Harmolodic Workshop member.
She is a 2019-2021 awardee of the University of Minnesota Norine Odland BIG-small Fellowship in Children’s Literature for co-founding KidLitLab! – a children’s literature incubator that works with undergraduate students in developing picture books. Her performance work has been shared at community events and festivals (e.g., Community Change Action, Funny Asian Women Kollective, ISAIAH Minnesota), literary spaces (e.g., Poets & Pints, Poetry Asylum, Poetry & Pie Picnic), as well as museums and theatres (e.g., Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Theater Mu, Pillsbury House & Theatre).
Denise is currently a PhD Candidate in Education with a focus in arts, culture and teaching. Her research and practice are motivated by experiences of miseducation and opportunities we lack to learn about our ancestors and ourselves. She is interested in the creative efforts we make to come home to ourselves with ancestral poetics of knowing. Find her at denisehuynh.com.

Catzie Vilayphonh is an award-winning writer, spoken word poet and multi-media artist. As a founding member of the group Yellow Rage she was one of the first Asian American women to appear on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. Through her work, she provides an awareness not often heard, drawing from personal narrative. She runs a community arts org, Laos In The House, and is also a Commissioner on the Mayor’s Commission on Asian American Affairs of Philadelphia and the only non-citizen Councilmember to the Pennsylvania Council on The Arts. A child of refugees, Catzie was born in a camp, on the way to America, and thus considers herself part of the “.5 Generation”.