Critical Perspectives in Hmong American Experiences and Scholarship

In the poem "A Litany for Survival," Audre Lorde says, “and when we speak we are afraid / our words will not be heard / nor welcomed / but when we are silent / we are still afraid / so it is better to speak.” In this talk, writer and editor Mai Neng Moua will discuss the writer’s role in creating a new kind of “Hmong-ness.” Using texts from Bamboo Among the Oaks, she will talk about how Hmong American writers participate in “survivance” by writing the truths about their own lives.