Travel in Spirals: Thailand

I'm going on a journey back to my birthplace, Thailand, to learn traditional Hmong poetry (kwv txhiaj and paj huam) and to be immerse in the Hmong way of life in the old country. I called my project Travel in Spirals. "Spirals" is a reference to the snail symbols from the reverse applique patterns used by Hmong women in making traditional Hmong needlework called paj ntaub. Hence, I'm traveling in spiral back to the source of myself and my heritage.

I've been a hip hop and spoken word artist for the last 10 years spending most of my time teaching Hmong youths the art of poetry. About 4 years ago, I started collaborating with my grandmother, Youa Chang, and we created a performance called Fresh Traditions that integrated Hmong kwv txhiaj and spoken word poetry. We have been performing Fresh Traditions since. Our most recent show was at Brown University, Rhode Island on November 14, 2008.

My work with grandma inspired me to learn more about traditional Hmong poetry. I was amazed by how she created poetry and how she improvise her poetry considering she isn't an educated woman. It was the improv that really connected me to her because I do that in my work as well. This connection made me want to learn more about traditional Hmong poetry and how to create it.

Grandma is going on this trip with me. We are excited to be traveling back to Thailand together as I will be studying with my aunt whom I've never met. My aunt is also Grandma's eldest daughter who she hasn't seen for the last 30 years. I guess you can say we are both on a journey back to reconnect with our roots and immerse ourselves in lives that we haven't been a part of for a long time.

I invite you to journey back with me and look forward to sharing my discoveries with you. Post your comments and questions here and I will try to monitor the blog as well as I can. Right now, I don't know how much access I will have to the internet or how often I can get to an internet source.