Cô VN - Creating Opportunities in Vietnam

h'Art For Cô Vietnam Bios

• Nguyen Qui Duc
• Thuy Vu
• Le Hang
• Lan Tran
• Unity Nguyen
• The Vietnamese Performing Arts Group
• Monica Crawford
• Sylvia La
• An-my Lê
• Anne Nguyen
• Minh Quang Nguyen
• Jenny Do

Nguyen Qui Duc
Nguyen Qui Duc is the host of "Pacific Time," KQED radio's national program focusing on Asia and its connections to the United States. Nguyen came to America in 1975, and in 1979 he began setting up several radio programs for the Vietnamese community in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was production manager and producer/announcer at KALW radio in San Francisco, and worked for the Far Eastern Services of the BBC in London. Nguyen has also worked as program director for Little Saigon Television in southern California and its radio service in Houston, Texas; set up a Los Angeles Internet company with seven foreign-language Web sites; and was program and general manager of the Vietnamese Broadcasting Network, a nationwide satellite TV service offered by SkyView Media. For several years, he was a regular commentator for National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." In 1989, the Overseas Press Club of America awarded him with a Citation for Excellence for his NPR documentary series on Vietnam. He has been a regular contributor to the Vietnamese literary journals Van Hoc, Van and Hop Luu. He has had essays and analyses published in the New York Times Magazine, Destination Vietnam, San Jose Mercury News, Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, The Boston Globe, Vietnam Business Journal and other publications. Nguyen has also written books, translated books from Vietnamese to English and has written several plays. He earned his bachelor's of arts degree in radio and television from San Francisco State University.

Thuy Vu
Thuy Vu joined ABC7 News in August 2000 as co-anchor of the ABC7 Sunday Morning News at 7 a.m and 9 a.m. She's also a reporter based in the South Bay Bureau.

Thuy began her journalism career in public radio at KQED-FM in San Francisco and National Public Radio.

Thuy has received numerous awards from both regional and national organizations for her reporting. American Women in Radio and Television honored her as Best Reporter in the Bay Area. She has won two national awards from the Asian American Journalists Association; one was for a multi-part series on post-war life in her homeland of Vietnam. She has also won honors from the Public Radio News Directors Association. In 2000, she was nominated for an Emmy Award for her investigation of safety problems at California's amusement parks.

She holds a Bachelor's Degree with Honors in Rhetoric from U.C. Berkeley.

Le Hang
Le Hang was among the first female writers who opened the dialogue of sexuality from the female point of view in her novels. She challenged the Vietnamese traditional view of marriage and relationship, asserted the woman’s right to sexual desire in a society where sex is taboo amongst women. Her heroines were allowed to follow their inclinations instead of being dictated by social codes of conducts. Today, twenty-nine years after the war, Le Hang thinks that Vietnamese women are still not liberated as she often says: “Suppression wears new clothes but its core! remains the same

Lan Tran
Writer/Perfomer Lan Tran was born in Texas, raised in Los Angeles, and was most recently a denizen of Manhattan's East Village before returning to Southern California. Her work has been featured on NPR, awarded the 2002 York Prize for Nonfiction, and produced off-Broadway in New York at The Atlantic Theater Company, Chashama on 42nd Street, Manhattan Theatre Source, Musical Theater Works, the West End Theater, with Stories at the Moth and New York City Hall. She is the recipient of fellowships and residencies from Hedgebrook, Ragdale, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her one woman show, "How to Unravel Your Family," played to a sold-out audience at HERE Arts Center's American Living Room Festival 2002, sponsored by Lincoln Center Theater. Lan, who earned her Masters Degree from NYU, is currently a nominee for Who's Who in America and was a finalist for the 2003 Heideman Award. She has served twice as a grant panelist for the United States Department of Education. She also likes food that no one else likes to eat.

www.lantranonline.com

Unity Nguyen
Vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Unity Nguyen brings together many traditions from around the world. Her music uses various languages and instruments, including the dan tranh (16-string zither of Viet Nam); and the kora (21-string harp of West Africa). Unity performs solo, or with various forms of her Unity Nguyen Ensemble. She also collaborates with a number of hot world music and dance groups.

Unity also shares her passion by teaching music-movement to diverse audiences. Besides performing and teaching music, Unity holds a Master’s degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

www.unityhealinghands.com

The Vietnamese Performing Arts Group
The Vietnamese Performing Arts Group, or VPAG (formerly known as Danny Nguyen Dancers and musicians), is a multicultural performance troupe featuring dancers, musicians, and visual artists.

VPAG presents new, traditional and non-traditional dance styles from different countries for audiences of all ages and backgrounds. The troupe embraces ballet, modern, jazz, ballroom, and theatrical styles to tell stories or describe social issues in the United States and Vietnam.

VPAG primary activities focus on performance and educational programs that present dance and music as interdisciplinary art forms bringing drama, music, dance, and storytelling together making a unique whole.

www.dannydancers.com

Monica Crawford
Because of her 17 year relationship with a close friend from Vietnam, Monica Crawford has a deep sense of appreciation for the Vietnamese culture, people, and spirit. Monica has studied at the San Francisco State University Fine Art Program. Her time spent in art history classes and in the studio encouraged her to paint from the heart, not from the textbook.

Of her paintings and depictions, Monica states: “My reactions to situations with family, friends or enemies often create a rich, and colorful palette, in essence expressing my mood or generating the gesture of maneuvering through life. My brushstrokes and application are often dictated by the rhythm of the drums or the melody in my head. My love of live percussion and dance also greatly affect the metaphorical muse while attempting to be responsive and not inhibited.”

www.bluegesture.com

Sylvia La
Sylvia La is a painter and poet who uses her art as a means to tell stories. She received her B.A. in English Literature in 1999 from the University of California, Berkeley, where she fostered her passion for stories through literature. Largely self-taught as a visual artist, she continues to narrate through her paintings.

Sylvia's work explores her history as a political refugee, and as a woman of Chinese and Vietnamese cultural heritage living in America. Much of her exploration has been fueled by an incredibly moving homeland trip to Vietnam, which sparked questions about memory and family history.

Sylvia's drawings and paintings have been exhibited at various shows throughout the bay area, including the SoMarts Cultural Center, the East Bay Municipal Utility District Gallery, UC Hastings School of the Law, and the Canvas Gallery Café. Sylvia was honored for her work with a first place in painting in the 1995 Orinda Arts Council competition.

An-my Lê
An-my Lê received an MFA in Photography at Yale University in 1993. Recent exhibitions include Photographs from the Permanent Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art (2001); Documents, Perceptions, and Perspectives, Rhode Island College, Providence (2000); Re-imagining Vietnam, Fotofest, Houston (1998); Selections from the Permanent Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (1997-98); New Photography 13, Museum of Modern Art, New York, (1997-98); and Picturing Communities, Houston Center for Photography (1997). An-my Lê received an MFA in Photography at Yale University in 1993. Recent exhibitions include Photographs from the Permanent Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art (2001); Documents, Perceptions, and Perspectives, Rhode Island College, Providence (2000); Re-imagining Vietnam, Fotofest, Houston (1998); Selections from the Permanent Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (1997-98); New Photography 13, Museum of Modern Art, New York, (1997-98); and Picturing Communities, Houston Center for Photography (1997).

http://www.ps1.org/cut/press/le.html

Anne Nguyen
Anne Nguyen Do Ngan is a graduate from the California College of the Arts. Her work includes Assimilation Essentials, “Four self-help cards for the foreigner that wants to belong.”

Anne Nguyen also attended University of California, Davis, where she studied Art Studios, and Neurobiology, Physiology & Behaviors. Her work with graphic design has included projects with Mars Encounter Exhibitions at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, and The Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco. Anne has a wealth of experience as a volunteer teaching art and computers to Bay Area youth.

Minh Quang Nguyen
Minh Quang was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and arrived in the US in 1986. She received a BFA from the Pratt Institute in New York. Minh Quang has exhibited her work nationwide, at venues such as the San Jose Museum of Modern Art, the Pratt Manhattan Center, and most recently, for the Viet-American Cultural Foundation. She has also been featured in the San Jose Mercury News and on radio.

Regarding her work, Ming Quang remarks: “The subject of my paintings is about various human states of beings interacting within themselves. People are going through life carrying intangible quest. The act of resolving those issues is somewhat the same as the process of making arts. While resolving perplexing matters, arts, through artists, create themselves.”

Jenny Do
I have always felt that women are the backbone of the Vietnamese society. They hold families and communities together, yet they have never been recognized for what they do or can do. The Vietnamese society confines the woman within the boundaries of family life: she is expected and encouraged to endure and to sacrifice for the benefits of others, and never for her own benefits. I want my brush and needlework to reflect her enduring spirit, and I will encourage her to assume new roles for herself, especially roles that are outside of what the society has long prescribed for her.