Mn Artists (Literary Arts)

Two poems by abolitionist-activist-academic-artist June Kuoch seek to navigate the corporality of the trans Asiatic body, love, and justice, asking: What does it mean for an object to object? Do we regain our own humanity?

Writer, actor, and filmmaker Naomi Ko expands the conversation on representation in media, asking what it means to create a TV show about your home and community when the world doesn’t believe you’re from there—and what it means to create for your community when parts of your community do not accept your work.

Poet Su Hwang digs into the influence of han in her Korean lineage, the kickassery of untranslatable words into English, and the toxicity of white gatekeeping in the arts––and ultimately delivers an ode to crazy dreams coming true anyway.

Artist-educator heather c. lou documents a year of transition from Oakland to Minneapolis, illuminating how artistic process is intimately affected by personal and professional lives, and sharing the search for voice and healing in a white supremacist environment.

Artist, poet, and scholar Simi Kang reframes the notion of expertise, examining which stories we are allowed to retain from our ancestors, what qualifies as a “valid” story, how institutions tell stories for us, and how we tell stories about and for ourselves.

Filmmaker Xiaolu Wang shares a love letter to her collaborators, revealing the complex dynamics of friendship, family, and internalized oppression that arise through the practical and emotional labor of creating an autobiographical film.

Writer and performance artist May Lee-Yang speaks back to the critics — advocating for greater specificity in telling Hmong women's stories, proposing a fresh take on the responsibilities of the audience, and considering the role of the artist as bad girl.