‘Would That: Transmutation, Transformation, and Tracing the Lines of Possibility’: An evening with poet Diana Khoi Nguyen

Join poet and multimedia artist Diana Khoi Nguyen for a talk about life, grief, and poetry as a way of being in the world. Diana will share the video and poetry work she has created since the death of her brother, and discuss its evolution as her grief has progressed with time.

Diana writes:

“Would That is a project which includes poetry, drama, and multimedia work (videos, site installations), where the impulse for discovery stems from thinking about subjunctive possibility (hence ‘Would That’), a verb mood not existent in the Vietnamese language. In material practice, I return to archives: family photographs and videos, but also the archive of my parents (their family photographs and videos). These returns are recurring, like a strand woven back and forth across the warp of a tapestry. I’m interested in documenting and finding documentation of resilience and resistance between/along generations of a Vietnamese American family (in this case, my own).”

Diana Khoi Nguyen was born and raised in California. She is the author of the chaplet Unless (Belladonna*, 2019) and debut poetry collection, Ghost Of (Omnidawn Publishing, 2018). Her forthcoming second collection of poems will be published by Scribner in 2024. Currently, she teaches creative writing at Randolph College Low-Residency MFA and is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

Registration is appreciated, though walk-ins are welcome. Please click here to register!