Hey y'all. Good morning and evening to all my listeners. Not much new with me. Just overall working a lot and juggling many different projects in life, as all of us are. But enough about me. Let's get to this week's guest, the wonderful Nathalie Sánchez, an interdisciplinary artist, social justice arts educator, and arts advocate raised and rooted in Los Angeles. She graduated with her B.A. in Art History and Studio Arts with an emphasis in education from Loyola Marymount University and received her M.F.A. in Public Practice from Otis College of Art and Design. Nathalie has developed and led visual arts and museum education programs at ArtworxLA, Avenue 50 Studio, Fowler Museum at UCLA, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (MOCA), and P.S. ARTS. In 2016, Nathalie founded the Art Education + Social Justice Book Club as a direct response to the U.S. presidential election and in the hopes of cultivating a community of thought partners and change-makers in arts education. Currently, the Art Education + Social Justice Book Club has over 350 members worldwide and continues to grow. Nathalie and I talk about all these projects, along with how to marry art and community, having advocates, holding accountability, and making friends. Nathalie was a joy to talk to and I hope you can join her in the upcoming book club meetings. Until then, stay safe and healthy and I hope you enjoy this.Links Mentioned:Nathalie SánchezArt Education + Social Justice Book ClubBarbara CarrascoUnited Farm WorkersPatrick MartinezMacha SuzukiVincent Price Art MuseumFollow Seeing Color:Seeing Color WebsiteSubscribe on Apple PodcastsFacebookTwitterInstagram

Seeing Color

Episode 78: Forgotten Cities (w/ Nathalie Sánchez)

Hey everyone. I hope you are all doing well as the fall comes full force. Things have been busy for me. I’ve been in the midst of completing three new video works and it is taking all my time. Mid-autumn Festival was a nice quick break and the upcoming national holiday will be some extra time for me to do my own work. Otherwise, today I have the amazing Fawn Douglas, an Indigenous American artist and enrolled member of the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe. Fawn is dedicated to the intersections of art, activism, education, identity, place, and sovereignty. Within her art-making and activism, she tells stories in order to remember the past and also to ensure that the stories of Indigenous peoples are heard in the present. Fawn is currently working on her Master of Fine Arts at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and co-curates the Vegas Institute for Contemporary Engagement (V.I.C.E), an artist team that has been the catalyst for exhibitions, podcasts, interviews, performances, and experimentation that makes space for marginalized artists in the Las Vegas community. Fawn and I had a wonderful conversation about call-out culture, cultural accessibility, and giving each other grace. It was moving listening to Fawn discuss her work as a community organizer and her experiences as an activist. As always, take care and I hope you enjoy this.Links Mentioned:Fawn’s Website / NuwuartFawn’s InstagramLas Vegas Paiute TribeIndigenous Women HikeKrystal RamírezInstitute of American Indian ArtsRed RockStanding RockMurdered & Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW)Ah’-Wah-Nee ExhibitionBlack Mountain InstituteFollow Seeing Color:Seeing Color WebsiteSubscribe on Apple PodcastsFacebookTwitterInstagram

Episode 77: We Don’t Dance For Money (w/ Fawn Douglas)

Hi everyone. I hope you are well. I’ve been feeling quite busy these past few days. Everything seems to be moving too fast. Maybe I’m just getting old. The first week of school felt intense and I'm already preparing for the following weeks. Anyway, for today, I have Sapira Cheuk, an ink painter and installation artist interested in ways of knowing through the body and how these modes of knowledge reflect or internalize external experiences. Sapira got her BA at UC Riverside and an MFA at Cal State Bernardino. She is currently teaching at UNLV, where she has found a welcoming art community in the Las Vegas area. I was connected to Sapira through the Rogers Art Loft and was glad to have learned about her practice. We also talk about Sapira moving to Hawaii from Hong Kong at a young age, Sapira hiding her art career from her parents early on, working in a collaborative project, and our unexpected connection with Zhuhai and the Shoshana Wayne Gallery. Hopefully, we will meet in Las Vegas. In the meantime, stay safe and healthy and I hope you enjoy this.Links Mentioned:Sapira's WebsiteSapira's InstagramDancing Together in a PandemicFollow Seeing Color:Seeing Color WebsiteSubscribe on Apple PodcastsFacebookTwitterInstagram

Episode 76: Finding Meaning Afterwards (w/ Sapira Cheuk)

Hi everyone. I hope you are well. I've been getting ready for the new semester and just saw this Netflix show called The Chair in preparation, which makes fun of academia. Obviously, there were many parts made for dramatic effect, and it was trying to tackle way too many subjects in way too little time, along with being produced by the same people from Game of Thrones gave me pause, but there were a few nice moments that felt also true that made me laugh, along with Sandra Oh's great performance. I'm not sure if that is a strong recommendation or not to see it. But anyway. This week I am returning back to the Las Vegas community through the Rogers Art Loft Residency and I am speaking with the amazing Vogue Robinson, a poet, author, mentor, and teaching artist. Originally from Perris, California, Vogue got her BA in English at San Diego State University before eventually landing in Las Vegas. Vogue was the poet laureate of Clark County, Nevada (2017-2019) and is the first Black woman to receive the Silver Pen Award from the Nevada Writers' Hall of Fame. Vogue has an infectious laugh and was a joy to talk to. We discussed what a poet laureate does, the croaking of frogs, Pringles, Nikki Giovanni, and so much more. As I was listening to the recording, I realized my voice was quite lethargic, even more than usual that day, and I apologize for that. I hope you can bear with it. I think Vogue brings the energy levels up every time she speaks and can't wait to visit her in Las Vegas in the near future. As always, stay safe and healthy and enjoy the show.Links Mentioned:Vogue's WebsiteVogue's InstagramNikki GiovanniNikki-Rosa by Nikki GiovaniAmanda GormanHistory of Poet laureateFollow Seeing Color:Seeing Color WebsiteSubscribe on Apple PodcastsFacebookTwitterInstagram

Episode 75: Poems For the Lonely Pringle (w/ Vogue Robinson)

Hi everyone. I hope you are well wherever you are as we are mid-way through August. Summer seems to have come and gone. At least it has for me. I have been mostly preparing for my classes in the fall and for a show I'll be having in November. Otherwise, I have nothing new to report. But for this week, I have a great artist to present to you, so let's get to the introductions.For today, I am interviewing Camilo Godoy, an artist and educator born in Bogotá, Colombia and based in New York City. His multidisciplinary projects are concerned with political histories and memories. Camilo's work engages with the intersection of history, race, gender, and sexuality and is informed by Queer, Latinx, Feminist, and Black perspectives. Camilo got his BFA at Parsons and is currently completing an MFA at Columbia University, which we discuss in greater detail the politics surrounding elite institutions and academia in the art world. We also get into how Camilo mines archival materials for his work, the role of an educator, the joy of art interviews, and his most recent solo show at OCD Chinatown. Camilo is also part of the group shows at the Leslie Lohman Museum in New York City and at Momentum 11 in Norway. I had a lot of fun talking with Camilo and I hope you appreciate what he has to say as well! In the meantime, stay safe, stay healthy, and enjoy the show.Hi everyone. I hope you are well wherever you are as we are mid-way through August. Summer seems to have come and gone. At least it has for me. I have been mostly preparing for my classes in the fall and for a show I'll be having in November. Otherwise, I have nothing new to report. But for this week, I have a great artist to present to you, so let's get to the introductions.For today, I am interviewing Camilo Godoy, an artist and educator born in Bogotá, Colombia and based in New York City. His multidisciplinary projects are concerned with political histories and memories. Camilo's work engages with the intersection of history, race, gender, and sexuality and are informed by Queer, Latinx, Feminist, and Black perspectives. Camilo got his BFA at Parsons and is currently completing an MFA at Columbia University, which we discuss in greater detail the politics surrounding elite institutions and academia in the art world. We also get into how Camilo mines archival materials for his work, the role of an educator, the joy of art interviews, and his most recent solo show at OCD Chinatown. Camilo is also part of the group shows at the Leslie Lohman Museum in New York City and at Momentum 11 in Norway. I had a lot of fun talking with Camilo and I hope you appreciate what he has to say as well! In the meantime, stay safe, stay healthy, and enjoy the show. Links Mentioned:Camilo's WebsiteCamilo's InstagramAmigxs Show at OCD ChinatownLeslie Lohman Museum's Omniscient: Queer Documentation in an Image CultureMomentum 11 - House of CommonsBrooklyn Museum's Nobody Promised You Tomorrow: Art 50 Years After StonewallJosé Limón's The Moor's PavaneFélix González-TorresBarbara KrugerJenny HolzerGran FuryMichel Foucault's Friendship As A Way of LifeSarah Schulman's The Gentrification of the MindJia TolentinoAmerican Friends Service CommitteeNew York Immigration CoalitionClaudia Tate's Black Women Writers at WorkFollow Seeing Color:Seeing Color WebsiteSubscribe on Apple PodcastsFacebookTwitterInstagram

Episode 74: Movement, Performance, and Amigxs (w/ Camilo Godoy)

Hey everyone. Hope you are doing well. I just finalized a 4-channel video during my time in Shanghai and had a chance to exhibit it to the local art community. I am currently preparing to leave back to Zhuhai in a bit. I also just finished my time at the Rogers Art Loft residency and held the closing talk last week, so thank you to all who swung by. It was a wonderful experience and I hope to visit everyone in Las Vegas soon. I will be posting the conversations I had with the local Las Vegas Community over the next few months, interspersed with previous interviews I conducted. So stay tuned.For today, I will be talking to Brent Holmes, a multi-disciplinary artist with a deep affinity to words- historical, epistemological and ontologically themed creative projects. Holmes also seeks to create a dialogue through several culinary projects, on the nature of communication, and morality and identity. Brent holds no degrees and says he most likely never will. Being the son of an entertainer, Brent is thoroughly traveled but has never completely identified any one place as his home until moving to Las Vegas. Brent and I chat about the coming apocalypse and for whom, the construction of the American West in relation to freedom, the body within a landscape, and symbolisms in objects. It was an enjoyable chat and I hopefully you will like it as well. As always, stay safe and healthy wherever you are and I hope you enjoy this. Links Mentioned:Brent's WebsiteBrent's InstagramBehold a Pale Horse ExhibitionFollow Seeing Color:Seeing Color WebsiteSubscribe on Apple PodcastsFacebookTwitterInstagram

Episode 73: Black Cowboys (w/ Brent Holmes)

Hey everyone. Happy Tuesday. We are in the midst of summer and time is going by quite quickly. I've been spending some time in the quiet suburbs of Shanghai before heading back to Zhuhai. There's a small but strong artist community here and it has been great getting to know the people here. Otherwise, I have been working on a 4-channel video and prepping for a show in the fall. I have also been recording a ton of interviews with the Las Vegas community through the Rogers Art Loft residency, through which and I am excited to share with you my chat with the amazing Erica Hector Vital-Lazare. Erica is a professor of Creative Writing and Marginalized Voices in Dystopian Literature at the College of Southern Nevada. She is also a poet, writer of fiction, and the co-producer of the photo-narrative installation Obsidian & Neon: Building Black Life and Identity in Las Vegas. Furthermore, Erica is the editor of McSweeney's Of the Diaspora, a series revisiting classic Black works in literature. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Erica as we talked about sci-fi and black futurism, reclaiming and revisiting one's past identity, and so many amazing book recommendations. As always, stay safe and healthy, both physically and mentally wherever you are, and I hope you enjoy this.Links Mentioned:Erica's InstagramPaule MarshallSeverance by Ling MaParable of the SowerMcSweeney's Of The DiasporaBrit BennettDanielle Valore EvansWesley BrownMarita GoldenZora Neale HurstonRichard WrightBlack Quantum FuturismNnedi OkoraforRalph EllisonRuby DuncanStorming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on PovertyObsidian & NeonWomxn of Color Arts FestivalMarjorie Barrick Museum of ArtFollow Seeing Color:Seeing Color WebsiteSubscribe on Apple PodcastsFacebookTwitterInstagram

Episode 72: Establishing Existence (w/ Erica Hector Vital-Lazare)

Hi everyone. I hope you are doing well wherever you are. As I mentioned previously, I am currently part of the Rogers Art Loft residency in Las Vegas and they have been putting me in touch with the local community and helping me meet people for the podcast. I have been speaking with quite a number of wonderful artists and cultural workers and these conversations will be released throughout the summer and upcoming fall season. For today, I am excited to share with you the first one of these talks as I speak with Shahab Zargari, an Iranian-American filmmaker, record label owner, and musician. Shahab takes me through his journey from working in advertising to making his own independent films and what drives him to tell the stories that he tells. We also talk about the pronunciation of names, Iranian films, Mad Men, and how he got a shoutout from Kevin Smith. Shahab also talks about his latest short film, Oh, the Guilt, which is a coming-of-age story set in the 1990s featuring a Persian-American as the main character. The plot tackles death, loss, and survivor’s guilt, elements of the human condition that transcend age, race, and creed. Check it out if you have the chance. Again, this episode was made possible through the Rogers Art Loft residency and I want to thank them for this opportunity. I hope you all enjoy this. Links Mentioned:Shahab's WebsiteThink Speak FilmsVladimir Tretchikoff's Chinese GirlInside Iranian CinemaChildren of HeavenA Girl Walks Home Alone at NightFollow Seeing Color:Seeing Color WebsiteSubscribe on Apple PodcastsFacebookTwitterInstagram

Episode 71: Duplicate Dichotomy (w/ Shahab Zargari)

Hi everyone. I hope you are doing well. I have been working quite a bit the past few weeks. I did a quick virtual artist talk with my good friend, Justin Favela, for the Rogers Art Loft virtual residency I am currently part of. I have also been recording quite a number of interviews with the Las Vegas community, so keep an eye out for these episodes in the upcoming months. Also, on June 30th and July 14th at 6pm PST, I will be doing live interviews with Jennifer Kleven and Dr. Erika Abad, with a quick Q&A afterwards. I will post the links on social media as the dates get closer. I hope to see a few of you there.For today, I am interviewing my good friend and the amazing artist, Yvette Mayorga. Yvette is a multidisciplinary artist based in Chicago, Illinois who interrogates the broad effects of militarization within and beyond the US/Mexico border and intervenes in the colonial legacies of art history. She fuses confectionary labor with found images to explore the meaning of belonging. Yvette got her BFA with a Minor in Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has shown in numerous places such as the National Museum of Mexican Art, LACMA, the DePaul Art Museum, and most recently the El Museo del Barrio. I met Yvette a few years ago in Miami and we formed a special friendship that continues on to today. Yvette and I talked about Gloria Anzaldúa, the Nike Cortez, showing at art fairs, and Key Lime Pies. Stay safe and healthy, and I hope you enjoy this. Links Mentioned:Yvette's WebsiteYvette's InstagramAdam ToledoGloria E. Anzaldúa's Borderlands/La Frontera: The New MestizaEl Museo del Barrio's La TrienalHernán CortésNike CortezDePaul Art Museum - LatinXAmericanFollow Seeing Color:Seeing Color WebsiteSubscribe on Apple PodcastsFacebookTwitterInstagram

Episode 70: Anti-monuments (w/ Yvette Mayorga)

Hi everyone. I hope you are doing well wherever you are. I just started my virtual residency at Rogers Art Loft, where I will be interviewing local Las Vegas artists and cultural workers. There will be a few live events, so I'll post them as they come about. Stay tuned!But for today, I have a really special episode with Dr. Jeffreen M. Hayes, a trained art historian and curator who advocates for racial inclusion, equity, and access. Jeffreen has extensive curatorial experience and some of her projects include SILOS, Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman, AFRICOBRA: Messages to the People, and Embracing the Lens: BlackFlorida project. Jeffreen is also the Executive Director of Threewalls, a space that intentionally develops artistic platforms with artists to help manifest the organization’s vision of art connecting segregated communities, people and experiences together. In this episode, Jeffreen was extremely generous with her time and labor as she talks about her journey through different arts organizations, from challenging racists institutions to welcoming the unfolding of the unknown. We also talk about how representation by itself is not enough, allowing for vulnerable moments, the importance of black-centered organizations, and defunding museums. Jeffreen hits so many key points more eloquently than I could ever do and I am excited to share our conversation with you. In the meantime, stay safe, stay healthy, and I hope you enjoy this.Links Mentioned:Jeffreen's TED Talk* for the love of blkThreewallsJamaica Center for Arts and LearningThe Organization of Black American CultureWall of RespectAfriCOBRAJeff DonaldsonWadsworth JarrellJae JarrellBarbara Jones-HoguGerald WilliamsAFRICOBRA: Nation Time at the Venice Biennale 2019The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Arts and MusicDefund Art MuseumsInside the Walls PodcastFollow Seeing Color:Seeing Color WebsiteSubscribe on Apple PodcastsFacebookTwitterInstagram

Episode 69: Welcoming the Unfolding (w/ Dr. Jeﬀreen M. Hayes)

Hey everyone. I hope you are well. I got my first vaccine shot. Hoping to get my second in a few weeks. I also have been traveling through parts of southern China and trying to grasp the art scene more. My students just had their senior year exhibition which I am proud to see their work hanging. It brings back memories of my undergrad. I have have one more week of school and then a month of meetings before I head to Shanghai. Time is moving fast. Anyway.For today, I have Dan Wang, an artist, writer, and organizer. Chinese-Midwestern by birth and currently living in Southern California, Dan’s art work has been shown in several solo exhibitions and scores of group shows, and has inhabited venues ranging from museums and art centers to street demonstrations and toilet stalls. His texts have been published in books, journals, webzines, exhibition catalogues, as commissioned art projects, and in a range of artists’ publications. As a cultural organizer, Dan has also worked in several collaborative configurations, having contributed to projects and productions authored under the names Compass, Madison Mutual Drift, and Red76. He was one of eight founding keyholders of the Chicago experimental cultural space Mess Hall. I caught up with Dan recently and was excited to learn more about his family background and growing up as a Chinese-American in the midwest. We chatted about Jajangmyeon, learning Chinese, spreading ideologies, and so much more. I hope to catch up with Dan in the future after this discussion for round 2. In the meantime, stay safe, stay healthy, and I hope you enjoy this.Links Mentioned:Dan's WebsiteDan's InstagramYang XianrangWu HungThe Fifth EstateThe Revolution of Everyday LifeNadja by André BretonKilling of Vincent ChinNow-Time Asian AmemricanGrace Lee BoggsNaeem MohaiemenFollow Seeing Color:Seeing Color WebsiteSubscribe on Apple PodcastsFacebookTwitterInstagram

Episode 68: Mother Tongue (w/ Dan Wang)

Hi everyone. Hope you are doing well. Things are okay so far on my end. School is ending soon and the temperature is getting hot and humid very quickly. My Chinese is steadily getting better and I have a few shows planned for the coming months, so I have to get back to my video editing as the deadline approaches. I also am doing a remote residency via Rogers Art Loft in Las Vegas in the coming summer, as well as a residency in Shanghai. I'll keep you updated about any upcoming events as they happen.For today, I have a really wonderful chat with Addoley Dzegede, a Ghanian-American interdisciplinary artist who grew up in South Florida and is now based in Pittsburgh. Her work has been exhibited throughout the US, Europe, and Africa, and she has been at residencies such as at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, Osei Duro in Accra, Ghana, Thread: a project of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Senegal, and many more. Addoley employs different materials, textile traditions, and notions of “authenticity” to investigates notions of belonging, migration and location, and hybrid identities.  Her work is a contemplation of the forces of history, experience, and location, as well as how they work together to tell a story, essentially, of longing as a state of being. I was able to ask Addoley more about these topics, along with the different histories of the textiles she uses, the idea of getting ready for grad school, and figuring out how to work at residencies. As a side note, I was introduced to Addoley and her partner, Lyndon, through her brother, Zechariah, who I know through my undergrad. I still am amazed at how small and interconnected the world can be, not just in the arts, but on our tiny little Earth. It is my hope we all can realize this sooner than later before it is too late. Anyway, take care, stay safe, and I hope you enjoy this.Links Mentioned:Addoley’s websiteAddoley’s InstagramHomegoing Novel by Yaa GyasiBatikKente ClothTrade BeadsAsk Addoley and Anna's PodcastMy interview with LyndonFollow Seeing Color:Seeing Color WebsiteSubscribe on Apple PodcastsFacebookTwitterInstagram

Episode 67: Laying Down Fully (w/ Addoley Dzegede)

Hi everyone. I hope you are doing well wherever you are. The George Flyod trial finally finished up and I feel institutions are already forgetting how much more work there needs to be done. As always, the question is where do we go from here and what else can we do. Only time will tell. We shall see. But for today, I am interviewing Dr. Yewande Pearse, a neuroscientist and science communicator. Born and bred in North London, Yewande got her Ph.D. from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, and is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at The Lundquist Institute at Harbor-UCLA. Her research interests focus on rare genetic disorders of the brain, and stem cell therapy.I first learned about Yewande through a show she curated me in at Naval LA, where she sits on the Programming Committee. I also watched some of the programming related to the exhibition, which focused on the impact of genomic studies on three aspects of identity: race, gender and politics. Yewande also hosts a few monthly radio shows and podcasts, such as Sound Science, Inside Biotech, and First Fridays for the Natural History Museum LA. On top of Yewande's prolific output as a podcaster, Yewande writes for Massive, an online science publication. For all these reasons, I was excited to finally talk with Yewande about her scientific work, her podcasting work, and her special science experiment work with John Legend. As always, stay safe and healthy and I hope you enjoy this.Links Mentioned:Yewande's WebsiteYewande's InstagramYewande and John LegendSound Science PodcastYewande at Massive ScienceNavalRACE, GENETICS, AND THE 0.1% with Dr. Terence Keel and Dr. Aaron PanofskyBatten DiseaseSound Science interview with Dr. Shawntel Okonkwo: Black in STEMDr. Jennifer Mullan of Deoclonizing ThearapyEvelynn Escobar's Hike Clerb Inc.Follow Seeing Color:Seeing Color WebsiteSubscribe on Apple PodcastsFacebookTwitterInstagram

Episode 66: Asking Better Questions (w/ Dr. Yewande Pearse)

Born and raised in Southern California, Noé developed his passion for art education working at the Skirball Cultural Center and Armory Center for the Arts in Los Angeles before getting a BA at UC Irvine. After, Noé completed an MFA in Public Practice at Otis College of Art and Design. Noé is also part of Michelada Think Tank, a collective of socially conscious artists, educators and activists working towards racial equity in the arts. More recently, Noé also joined Admin, a space for arts administrators to support one another, discuss pressing issues, and workshop new forms of cultural institutions. In addition to all this, Noé works as the School, Youth, and Family Programs Educator at the Brooklyn Museum. I first met Noé through my good friend, Carol Zou, a previous guest of the show. Carol and the rest of Michelada Think Tank were doing a project for Open Engagement in Pittsburgh and the whole collective stayed at my place. At the time, I was taking care of a bunny named LeBun James and coming home late to see LeBun jumping over and sitting on the sleeping Michelada crew is one of my fondest memories. Apparently, Noé remembered it as well. Throughout our conversation, we discuss finding community, diversity work at institutions, and people over objects. I hope you enjoy this. Links Mentioned:Noé Gaytán’s websiteAdminPrevious Episode with Carol ZouArmory Center for the ArtsSkirball Cultural CenterLACELorraine O'GradyChange the MuseumDaniel Joseph MartinezArt Museum Staff Demographic Survey 2018Adjoa Jones de AlmeidaKeonna HendrickCUE Art FoundationOpen EngagementFollow Seeing Color:Seeing Color WebsiteSubscribe on Apple PodcastsFacebookTwitterInstagram

Episode 65: Diversity and Equity (w/ Noé Gaytán)

Hey everyone. I hope you are well. It has been crazy this past week with all the mass shootings that has been happening in the US. I don't have much to add other than what a previous guest of this show, Tereneh Idia, recently posted, which is that the people of the global majority needs to unite to end white supremacy, that too many have adopted white supremacy as their ideals, their love, their body, their mind, their work, their art, their heart and their soul. This is something we all have to work on as the global majority. This work never ends. Don't be afraid to find someone to talk to about these topics. These discussions needs to be out in the open. With that in mind, stay safe wherever you are.For today, I am interviewing Khaty Xiong, a poet born to Hmong refugees from Laos and is the seventh daughter of fifteen brothers and sisters. She is the author of Poor Anima, the first full-length collection of poetry published by a Hmong American woman in the United States. Most recently, Khaty was awarded a 2020 Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship. Khaty's other honors include a Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, a Roxane Gay Fellowship in Poetry, and the Nadya Aisenberg Fellowship at MacDowell.I met Khaty over a year ago at Vermont Studio Center and we bonded over meals, late night chats, and Houdini the cat. Khaty had a very calming presence, which belies the complex thoughts she reveals in her writing. Our conversation goes deep into Khaty's family history, an important part to understanding the influences of Khaty's poetry. As Khaty describes it, her body of grief work is an ode to the inability to “return home” as a descendant of illiterate diasporans, interrogating, as well as creating, myths around mothers, death, and gardens. We also discuss being vulnerable,  transparent family stories, and the acceptance of grief. Be warned that this is an intense episode. Take care, stay safe, and I hope you enjoy it.Links Mentioned:Khaty XiongKhaty's WebsiteKhaty's TwitterHow Do I Begin?: A Hmong American Literary AnthologyKhaty's profile at the Poetry FoundationMore info on the Laotian Civil WarMore info on the Hmong PeopleFollow Seeing Color:Seeing Color WebsiteSubscribe on Apple PodcastsFacebookTwitterInstagram

Episode 64: Hmong Blues (w/ Khaty Xiong)

Seeing Color is a podcast that talks with cultural workers and artists of color in order to expand the area of what is a predominantly white space in the arts. With discussions shifting between art and race, Zhiwan Cheung hashes out with guests a range of topics about the creative process in a white-dominated art world.

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Seeing Color

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