with each new writing, I arrive at lexicon of violence. missiles. grenades. bladecuts. Metaphors of destruction. it’s one of the first languages I was taught. the childhood stories I listened to, they didn’t exist of stars, moons or flowers. instead, I listened to stories of guns blazing. Of fire swallowing. of names who also ran for the border but were never heard of again. a language I became so well versed in. but I wasn’t left with a legacy of violence alone. I've seen stories of lives outliving the boats before breaking into the ocean. of endless hope simmering in bone broth. of survival folded into the lament of Vọng cổ & bolero songs. somewhere along the line, I promised to render these stories not as endings, but as points of remembering. to safekeep them as stories of survival. to write ourselves out of abolition & into existence.

STATEMENT

Publications include Galaxy Gazette 2.0, Writer's Guide to the Galaxy (2023), Queer & Feminist Poetry Anthology, Unwanted Words (2021), Poetica Volume II, BymePoetry (2019)

Headlining performances include Queer Poetry Nights: Summer Edition, Unwanted Words (2023), Connected Learning Symposium, Erasmus University Rotterdam(2022), ByMePoetry Spoken Word, Canvas Cafe London (2017).

Showcases of my video poems include the Asian Art Museum(San Francisco, USA), Museum de Lakenhal (Leiden, NL) and TENT online (Rotterdam, NL)